The project is the latest to grow out of Ford’s broader effort
to develop businesses that could use automated delivery
vehicles. Ford was working with San Francisco-based Postmates
already to develop delivery services that could employ automated
vehicles.
The Walmart pilot, which will take place in the Miami area,
initially will use human-driven vehicles operated to simulate
how a self-driving vehicle would behave, Ford said. Ford has
said it expects to launch commercial production of automated
vehicles by 2021.
Ford and its partners are using Miami as a testing ground for
automated delivery service ideas and automated vehicle
technology.
The new pilot project will offer customers delivery by Postmates
of goods ordered at Walmart stores. Brian Wolf, an executive of
Ford’s autonomous vehicle unit, wrote in a blog post that the
companies will work over the next “couple of months” to figure
out what goods can be delivered successfully, especially
perishable groceries.
"Before self-driving cars can go mainstream, we must get a
better sense of how people want to interact with them," Tom
Ward, Walmart senior vice president for digital operations, said
in a statement on Thursday.
That could require new designs or equipment for vehicles, Wolf
wrote. Among the challenges Ford has said it is working on is
designing on-board storage systems that are easy for customers
to open to retrieve a pizza or a package.
Postmates, according to its website, operates in 385 U.S.
cities, as well as Mexico. It offers delivery from
brick-and-mortar restaurants and stores.
Walmart is competing with online retailer Amazon.com <AMZN.O>
and other rivals to cut the cost of delivering goods over what
industry executives call “the last mile” to customers who order
online.
Replacing human delivery van drivers with robotic systems could
reduce last-mile delivery costs. But the technology is still
expensive, and the industry is still waiting for regulations
that could help protect automated vehicle owners or
manufacturers from liability claims.
Ford has emphasized commercial uses of autonomous vehicle
technology, such as goods delivery, in contrast to rival General
Motors Co <GM.N>, which is working to build a robot taxi service
at its GM Cruise unit.
Ford is in discussions with German automaker Volkswagen AG <VOWG_p.DE>
about a possible investment in its self-driving vehicle unit,
people familiar with the situation said. No deal has been
announced.
In July, Ford said it would create a new business unit, Ford
Autonomous Vehicles LLC, to house its self-driving vehicle
operations. The automaker said it would invest a total of $4
billion in the unit through 2023.
(Reporting by Joe White; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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