Walmart this week revealed plans to test grocery delivery with self-driving cars through a pilot with Udelv to take place in Surprise, Arizona. The pilot will use customized cargo vans to deliver customers’ orders.
Read the full announcement by Tom Ward, SVP of digital operations for Walmart U.S., below:
“Over the last few years we’ve been working hard to bring Grocery Pickup and Delivery to more and more customers across the country for one reason: Customers love it! It makes shopping easy and saves loads of time.
But, we’re not stopping with simply rolling out the service to more stores. We continue to explore new ways that can make what’s easy today even easier tomorrow. That includes testing a number of things, including autonomous vehicle technology—and today, we’re announcing a new pilot with autonomous vehicle company, Udelv.
The pilot program with Udelv will take place in Surprise, Arizona. What’s really cool is that Udelv will utilize a cargo van custom-made to deliver fresh groceries—hand-picked by our personal shoppers—to customers.
We’re still learning—it’s a pilot—but, we want to make sure we stay on the cutting edge of grocery delivery by exploring what’s new and next. For example, we recently explored a few pilot projects with other self-driving car companies to start understanding how customers will want to use the technology when it comes to their grocery shopping.
We’ve said it before: There’s no telling what innovation the future will bring. But, Walmart is committed to staying on the forefront of change to make getting groceries simple, quick, and easy.”
