The trial will be initially carried out by Nuro’s fleet of self-driving vehicles
U.S. supermarket retailer Kroger Co. and Nuro confirmed Scottsdale, Ari., as the city for their self-driving grocery delivery pilot. Earlier this year, Kroger and Nuro announced a partnership to begin testing grocery delivery using Nuro’s robots. Through the use of Nuro’s self-driving delivery vehicles, customers will receive their groceries at their homes, Kroger said.
Kroger also said that customers can already place delivery orders through this new service. The company said that customers shop via frysfood.com or the Fry’s Food Stores mobile app and place their order based on slot availability
Grocery orders can be scheduled for same-day or next-day delivery by Nuro’s fleet of self-driving vehicles, for a $5.95 flat fee.
“Scottsdale is proud to be the home of Kroger and Nuro’s partnership,” said Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane. “We welcome innovative technology that can benefit the lives of Scottsdale residents. We feel this partnership holds tremendous potential and promise, and offers our residents real, not-yet-experienced convenience for everyday routines.”
“We’re excited to launch our autonomous vehicle delivery pilot with Fry’s in Scottsdale,” said Kroger Chief Digital Officer Yael Cosset. “Kroger wants to bring more customers the convenience of affordable grocery delivery, and our pilot with Nuro will help us test and learn to understand customer acceptance of autonomous vehicles in our seamless offering,” the executive said.
“Arizona is home to some of the most innovative autonomous vehicle testing,” said Nuro co-founder Dave Ferguson. “We’re proud to contribute and turn our vision for local commerce into a real, accessible service that residents of Scottsdale can use immediately. Our goal is to save people time, while operating safely and learning how we can further improve the experience.”
Nuro said that it will begin the pilot with its self-driving Prius fleet. ”It shares many software and hardware systems with our custom vehicle, the R1. So while we complete the R1’s final certification and testing, the Priuses will be completing deliveries and helping us improve the overall service,” Nuro said in a blog post.
“We’re proud of this first step toward self-driving vehicle delivery, and we‘re already hard at work on what’s next. The R1 will be rolling into Scottsdale this fall ,” Nuro added.
Nuro’s new vehicle is designed specifically to move goods between and among businesses, neighborhoods, and homes. The fully autonomous vehicle is unmanned and about half the width of a passenger car.
