US retailer Walmart is teaming up with Cruise, General Motors’ autonomous vehicle unit, to test driverless delivery in Arizona.
The companies said battery-powered Chevrolet Volt vehicles will begin deliveries in Scottsdale early next year. They’ll initially have human backup drivers who will monitor the cars and help to deliver packages to doors.
According to Ray Wert, spokesman at GM’s Cruise autonomous vehicle unit, the plan is to eventually move to fully autonomous deliveries.
Walmart said customers will be able to place an order and it will be delivered contact-free by a Cruise vehicle, which is one of several autonomous vehicle pilot projects designed to chart a new roadmap for retail sales.
The company started an express delivery service in April and now has it in over 2,800 stores that reach more than 65% of US households.
Wert said the testing with Walmart will start small and gradually ramp up to more vehicles.
In October, Cruise said that it would pull the human backup drivers from its autonomous vehicles in San Francisco by the end of the year.
