Walmart revealed that it uses fully-driverless trucks to transport groceries from its fulfillment center to one Arkansas supermarket. This move will reduce costs and alleviate the labor shortage in retail supply chains.
Twelve hours a day, apair of trucks are running on a seven-mile loop of public roads from a fulfillment center to the Walmart on Regional Airport Boulevard in Bentonville, Arkansas, where the mega-retailer is headquartered.
Customers can pick up orders from this location conveniently.
Walmart began driverless delivery in August with autonomous trucks built by Gatik (a Palo Alto-based startup). However, the company waited until Monday to announce that it had started using these trucks after two months without any incidents.
The trucking industry has faced a record worker shortage since the pandemic started, Chris Spear, president of the American Trucking Associations, told CNN, with 80,000 drivers still needed.
Middle- and last-mile deliveries — from warehouses to stores, or stores to homes — have also been impacted. Even’s Amazon’s one-day delivery pledge for Prime members has faltered.
After receiving approval from the Arkansas State Highway Commission in December 2020, Gatik’s trucks started making deliveries on the ‘middle mile’ of the supply chain — between ‘dark stores,’ which have been shut down and turned into fulfillment centers, and operational supermarkets.
Two months after clocking up over 70,000 operating miles, the vehicle finally removed the safety driver and took off its training wheels.
According to Gatik and Walmart, this is the first autonomous trucking company that has taken the human driver out of a middle-mile commercial route anywhere in the world.
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Walmart started using Gatik’s autonomous boxes trucks in December 2020. The safety driver was removed after approximately 70,000 miles.
“Taking the driver out of the car is the ultimate goal in this technology,” Gautam Narang, Gatik CEO said to CNBC. Gatik CEO Gautam Narang told CNBC. “Having trust from the biggest retailer in the world is huge for us and it validates our technology and progress.
Tom Ward (Senior Vice President of Consumer Product at Walmart USA) stated that the autonomous boxes trucks ‘offer a safe, efficient and sustainable way to move goods over repeatable routes from our stores.
“We’re delighted to work with Gatik and achieve this milestone, an industry first, in Arkansas. We look forward for this technology to help Walmart customers at speed.
Walmart announced that they are working together on a similar program, with a Louisiana route between Metairie (New Orleans) of about 20 miles. But, the system still uses safety drivers.
Walmart claims that 90 percent of Americans are within 10 miles from a Walmart. Therefore, opening a store closer to home is not always an option.
A pair of trucks operate on a seven-mile loop of public roads, 12 hours a day, from a fulfillment center to the Walmart on Regional Airport Boulevard, in the company’s hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas. Customers can pick up orders from the fulfillment center.
The company stated that it could be a pick-up location with an autonomous vehicle making delivery on a continuous loop.
“Our Gatik trials are only two examples of the many uses we’re testing autonomous vehicles in, and we’re eager to learn how they might be integrated into a delivery system.”
Narang stated that autonomous trucks reduce operating costs and address labor shortages, improving efficiency, and are more cost-effective.
For a variety of reasons, moving cargo can be much more straightforward than transporting passengers.
Routes and demand can be more predicted, so the system may choose to take the safest route possible, instead of the fastest.
Walmart, which has taken advantage of rising demand for curbside delivery and invested extensively in autonomous deliveries since the pandemic. The company announced in September that it would start testing autonomous-vehicle delivery at three locations: Austin, Miami and DC. Pictured: A family shops at the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market in Bentonville, Arkansas.
‘The operating economics are much better suited to getting this stuff out there sooner,’ Sam Abuelsamid, an analyst with global research firm Guidehouse told Bloomberg.
“I am a bit surprised that more companies aren’t taking this up.”
Abuelsamid stated that he anticipates robots to deliver more groceries than humans at least through 2027.
Kroger has been testing autonomous delivery services from its stores to their customers homes through a partnership with Nuro Silicon Valley, which has also a deal with Walmart.
Kroger reports that it has received thousands of delivery in Houston (Texas) and Scottsdale, Arizona from 2018 to 2018.
Albertsons supermarket chain, Safeway and Kings, tested the unmanned delivery of groceries in Northern California using Tortoise Carts that were filled by employees.
CNBC reported that rather than autonomously driving, carts can be operated remotely by Tortoise employees using an Xbox controller. This allows them to steer the cart towards the customers’ home.
Walmart, which has taken advantage of rising demand for curbside delivery and invested large in autonomous deliveries since the pandemics, is investing heavily in them.
The company announced in September that it would start testing autonomous vehicle delivery systems in Austin, Texas, Miami, Florida and Washington D.C. as part of a partnership with Ford. Ford Escape hybrids will be equipped with artificial technology and delivered by the $560-billion Mega-Retailer.
Argo AI is a joint venture between Ford and Volkswagen that will offer the infrastructure cloud-based to safely route and schedule orders.
Argo AI founder Bryan Salesky spoke at the time that by focusing only on metro areas, it will demonstrate ‘the potential of autonomous vehicle delivery services scaled’.
Walmart has formed partnerships and agreements with several autonomous vehicle startups, including Udelv (Google’s Waymo) and Nuro (Nuro), the first California-approved company for driverless delivery.
Walmart and Cruise announced in November 2020 that they would be collaborating on a pilot program using self-driving electric vehicles to deliver orders to customers living in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Customers could place orders at their nearest Walmart and have it delivered contact-free by Cruise’s electric self-driving Chevy bolts.
According to Scottsdale Progress, the program was supposed to launch early in this year. However, it hadn’t launched as of mid October.
Walmart bought an undisclosed percentage in Cruise, but did not immediately reply to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.