Ford and Walmart Teaming Up to Test Autonomous Grocery Delivery
In an article posted to Medium, Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC Director of Business Development Brian Wolf revealed that the automaker is partnering with Walmart and Postmates on a pilot program that will explore the usefulness of self-driving vehicles for the delivery of groceries and other household items.
“Like Ford, Walmart believes that self-driving vehicles have an important role to play in the future of delivery, and that true success comes from first learning how individuals want to use them in their daily lives,” Wolf writes. “Together, we’ll be using research vehicles, designed to simulate an autonomous experience, to gather crucial data about consumer preferences and learn the best way we can conveniently connect people with the goods they need.”
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Ford also selected Walmart because it has already seen success with its home grocery delivery option, which is expected to expand to 800 stores by year’s end and upwards of 1,600 stores by the end of 2019. The groceries are delivered to customers via Postmates, with whom Ford has already been working to test out the viability of commercializing self-driving vehicle services. Wolf writes that Ford has already conducted 1,000 deliveries using autonomous vehicles.
Ford in 2017 announced that it would be partnering with Domino’s Pizza to research pizza delivery via autonomous vehicles, and it months later announced Miami would be the official partner city of its autonomous vehicle services tests. Ford will next conduct autonomous vehicle testing in the eight wards of Washington, D.C., with public operations set to get underway next year.
Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC was established in July of this year as part of the automaker’s push to bring Level 4 autonomous vehicles to market at a fleet and commercial level by 2021.
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Photos: Ford and Walmart Partner for AV Delivery Tests
News Source: Medium
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