Walmart to Pilot Autonomous Grocery Delivery

As Walmart looks to further its foothold in the booming online grocery arena, it is embarking on an autonomous home delivery pilot in Houston.

The pilot with autonomous delivery innovator Nuro, is the latest in Walmart’s pursuit of human-less, last-mile fulfillment.

Over the summer Walmart is announced a partnership with autonomous vehicle company Gatik to pilot driverless delivery to transport customer orders between stores. Gatik, a startup deploying autonomous vehicles for B2B short-haul logistics, launched from stealth with Walmart as a partner back in June.

The test will take place in Bentonville, AR, on a two-mile route between two of Walmart’s stores.

“Our unparalleled size and scale have allowed us to steer grocery delivery to the front doors of millions of families – and design a roadmap for the future of the industry,” wrote Tom Ward, SVP, digital operations, Walmart U.S in a blog post announcing the Nuro pilot. “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.”

In addition, last month, Walmart went live with Delivery Unlimited at more than 1,400 locations. The program gives customers the option to pay a yearly $98 fee or a monthly $12.95 fee to receive unlimited Walmart Grocery Delivery orders right to their front door.