nuro & kroger deploy self-driving cars for grocery deliveries in arizona

self-driving, electric vehicle startup nuro – founded by two ex-google engineers – not only revealed to the world their R1 prototype in january 2018 but also announced a partnership with kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the US. the idea was simple: the driverless pods, which feature two storage compartments that, obviously, open automatically, would transport local goods such as groceries, dry cleaning and even pizza orders. starting on august 16th 2018, the collaboration is piloting autonomous deliveries of groceries in scottsdale, arizona.

all images courtesy of nuro

using either kroger’s website or mobile app, customers can shop and order either same- or next-day deliveries directly to their homes. there is no minimum order as well, only a flat delivery fee of $5.95. but, in nuro’s opinion, that is a small price to pay in order to spend less time on errands and more time of life, right?

‘we’re proud to contribute and turn our vision for local commerce into a real, accessible service that residents of scottsdale can use immediately‘ nuro CEO dave ferguson said in a statement, according to techcrunch. ‘our goal is to save people time, while operating safely and learning how we can further improve the experience.‘

however, for the pilot testing, scottsdale residents will not see the nuro R1 prototype transporting the deliveries. instead, a toyota prius self-driving fleet will first be used in order to trial and improve the overall service and customer experience. this is rather than just focusing on getting final certification for their R1 model.

source: techcrunch