Walmart Inc. has been fishing around in the autonomous car space for years. Now, it's gearing up to test autonomous delivery service in Austin, Miami and Washington, D.C.
While it's a relatively small rollout, planned for select parts of the three cities, the testing will help pave the way for future autonomous delivery services. The cars, which are Ford vehicles equipped with Argo AI autonomous systems, will have safety drivers at the wheel ready to take over as needed, as well as report any findings from the delivery tests.
In Austin, the autonomous deliveries will start in South Austin with deliveries from the Walmart at E. Ben White Boulevard near I-35, a company spokesperson said.
The new partnership comes as Ford Motor Co. and Argo AI LLC continue to prepare to launch robotaxi services in Austin as early as next year in partnership with Lyft Inc..
“Argo and Ford are aggressively preparing for large-scale autonomous vehicle operations across a broad footprint of U.S. cities,” Scott Griffith, CEO of Ford Autonomous Vehicles & Mobility Businesses, said in a statement. “Pairing Walmart’s retail and e-commerce leadership with Argo and Ford’s self-driving operations across these multiple cities marks a significant step toward scaling a commercial goods delivery service that will ultimately power first-to-scale business efficiencies and enable a great consumer experience.”
For consumers, the move won't change the delivery experience much at first. After placing an online order, a runner would deliver the packages to the customer directly. But, in the background, Argo's self-driving technology will be woven in with Walmart's app platform to alert customers when an order is ready so they can grab the goods from the back of the car when it arrives, which is the long-term goal.
While it may not be a game-changer now, Walmart has been making acquisitions, investments and partnerships that indicate its long-term plans to integrate automated delivery at scale in coming years. In 2018, Walmart partnered with Ford to examine the potential for self-driving vehicle deliveries in Miami-Dade County. It also conducted a pilot project with Google's self-driving spinout Waymo in Chandler, Arizona.
Last year, Walmart announced it was partnering with General Motors' all-electric vehicle subsidiary, Cruise, to provide deliveries via self-driving cars in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The moves are all part of a broader effort by Walmart, along with other competitors, such as Amazon, to become early adopters of emerging technologies ranging from self-driving and electric cars to drone delivery, alongside developing more efficient routing technologies for traditional drivers.
Just last month, Walmart said it would commercialize a white labeled version of its delivery platform for other businesses to use as part of its GoLocal plan.
Ford and Pittsburgh-based Argo in 2019 said Austin would become the epicenter of its self-driving taxi service. Argo has been hiring for dozens of jobs in Austin in the past couple years. It currently has more than a dozen positions that could be based in Austin, as well as several roles specific to Austin, such as autonomous vehicle system test specialist.
Meanwhile, Walmart planted one of its tech hubs in Austin in 2018. The space, called the Walmart Tech ATX office, was pitched at the time as a place to develop innovations in "enterprise technology functions that keep Walmart running such as people systems, finance, security, associate experience" and more. It coordinates development with Walmart's teams in Bentonville, Ark.; Jet headquarters in Hoboken, New Jersey; and Walmart.com in San Bruno, Calif. The Austin office currently has four software roles open, according to its website.
