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Two former Google engineers have announced they have entered the race to create a self-driving delivery van. Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu reportedly left the tech giant’s self-driving project to work on their dream of realising an autonomous delivery vehicle.

Claimed to be far easier to develop and less complicated to build than a passenger-carrying driverless car, the Nuro van is only half as wide as a typical family car.

Featuring a configurable load bay that can be set-up to carry lockers, or a heated or cooled load space, Zhu and Ferguson envisage the Nuro will deliver anything from groceries to pizzas and dry cleaning.

So far, the small van has taken just 18 months to develop. Helping the pair cut development corners, the small delivery van has been designed to operate only in urban conditions. That means the van only needs to harness the power of short-range instead of the extra hardware needed for a car to operate at high speed.

Claimed to be in limited service by the end of the year, the Nuro is set to go head-to-head with Toyota, which revealed its e-Palette concept this year. However, the e-Palette will not enter real-world trials until the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

That said, the Japanese-car maker has confirmed Amazon, Uber and Pizza Hut, along with Mazda and a Chinese ride-sharing company, are already backing the e-Palette. This is only around the corner.