Walmart is partnering with Nuro to test self-driving grocery delivery in Houston in 2020. Nuro's vehicles will reportedly delivery Walmart online grocery orders to a select group of customers who opt into the service.
The delivery service will include R2, Nuro's custom-built delivery vehicle that carries products without any on-board drivers or passengers. Toyota's autonomous Prius will deliver groceries as well.
TechCrunch reports that the goal of the program is to learn more about how autonomous grocery delivery could work and how the service can be improve to better serve Walmart customers.
Nuro has previously partnered with Kroger to test its autonomous vehicles for a driverless service. The company will also test its second generation robot, R2, with Kroger, Domino's and now Walmart.
“Our unparalleled size and scale has allowed us to steer grocery delivery to the front doors of millions of families – and design a roadmap for the future of the industry,” said Tom Ward, Walmart’s SVP of digital operations, in a statement. “Along the way, we’ve been test driving a number of different options for getting groceries from our stores to our customers’ front doors through self-driving technology. We believe this technology is a natural extension of our Grocery Pickup and Delivery service, and our goal of making every day a little easier for customers.”
Walmart says its pilot program with Nuro will kick off in 2020.