Walmart Tests Driverless Delivery   Service

Nuro, which makes autonomous delivery vehicles designed to operate on public roads, says the service will start “in the coming months” in Houston, Texas. Autonomous deliveries initially will be available to customers who opt into the test program. The goal will be to expand robotic delivery to the general public later in 2020, Nuro says. Walmart Inc., No. 3 in the 2019 Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000, and robotics company Nuro Inc. will test making grocery deliveries using driverless vehicles. Using the R2, a retailer’s employees load online orders into compartments of the vehicle, which then drives itself to a customer’s home. When the order arrives, the customer receives a notification from a mobile app that the self-driving robot is outside. The customer then uses a PIN to open the appropriate compartments and retrieve their order.