Hey look, your milk and cereal have arrived on the curbside!
Scottsdale residents get Nuro’s driverless cars to deliver their groceries from Fry’s Food.
Roughly five years ago, Amazon tried to give home delivery a tech zing using drones. Now, Nuro, an American robotics company based in Mountain View, CA, in partnership with Kroger, America’s largest grocery retailer, is attempting to redefine the otherwise tedious delivery process too. Only this time it’s a driverless car that’s delivering your milk and groceries and whatnots.
Reminiscent of a pod-like golf cart, the “self-driving, unmanned on-road vehicle” called R1, made its debut in Scottsdale, Arizona on Tuesday, December 18, 2018.
In August, a self-driving grocery delivery service was launched in partnership with Nuro by Fry’s Food, a brand owned by Kroger for delivering groceries to customers for its stores on East McDowell Road in Scottsdale, Arizona. The deliveries were made by self-driving Toyota Prius cars and had safety drivers on board, said a report.
Another report gives us the gist of the delivery process:
• You may place delivery orders for groceries from a single Fry’s Food Stores location, in this case, 7770 East McDowell Rd.
• You may then opt to have it delivered by self-driving vehicle.
• You may get delivery the same day or the next day.
• The charges are $6 for delivery with no minimum order.
• Just head to the curb when the pod arrives. Then, punch a code on the screen on the side of the vehicle and retrieve your groceries.
• All done, the pod will make way to its next location.
“The R1 features world-class self-driving software and sensing hardware, redundancy across every critical driving system, and a lighter and nimbler footprint than a standard car,” said Dave Ferguson, co-founder Nuro, in a blog post. “In the initial phase of the development, we’ve also thoroughly trained our robot operators who monitor R1 and are able to take control at any time,” he added, allaying fears associated with self-driven pods.
In a YouTube video, the startup has also depicted the convenience of having your groceries delivered by its pods.
Since there is no minimum order, you may wish to order just your milk and cereal to have a sneak peek at the pod.
Happy Shopping!
