Autonomous vehicle startup Gatik AI has partnered with American multinational retail corporation Walmart to introduce a commercial service to deliver goods.
Gatik’s autonomous vehicles are to help Walmart move customer orders from its Supercenter in Rogers, Arkansas down a two-mile stretch of road in Bentonville to one of two nearby stores.
Future Car reports that the idea behind testing the driverless vans is for Walmart to ‘learn more about the logistics of adding autonomous vehicles in our online grocery ecosystem’, as well as other things.
The pilot programme will reportedly operate in Arkansas and see Palo Alto, California-based Gatik operate three Ford Transit Connect vans that have been modified to drive autonomously.
In California, the Transit Connect vans will run seven days a week and complete roughly 10 runs a day. Human safety operators will behind the wheel of the vehicles at all times, according to Future Car.
