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, Texas; 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.
The new partnership comes as Ford Motor Co. and Argo AI LLC continue to prepare to launch robotaxi services in Miami 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.
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