Austin, Texas, Miami, Florida, and Washington D.C. are going to be the three cities to experience the launch. This will be Walmart’s first multi-city autonomous delivery system in the United States, paired with Ford self-driving test vehicles and Argo AI’s Self Driving System and cloud based infrastructure, both designed to pair with Walmart’s technology to receive and route orders and schedule deliveries. Once the system launches, customers will be able to place their orders online for groceries and other items available in their local Walmart and have them sent directly to their door.
Argo AI and Ford have been working together on autonomous vehicle services in Austin since 2019 and in Miami and Washington D.C. since 2018, testing concepts for ride hailing services and delivery services. Establishing the necessary capacity to manage a commercial fleet of self-driving vehicles, including keeping the cars fueled, serviced, clean, has been a process several years in the making.
This service will be available in defined service areas within the three cities selected, and is projected to expand over time. Initial integration testing is scheduled to begin later on this year. Ford, Argo AI and Walmart are all preparing for self-driving delivery systems to eventually become large-scale. The selected areas of Austin, Miami, and Washington D.C. will be prime locations to test the system for the demands of an urban environment and high customer volume. This launch will not only be laying the groundwork for other areas to receive self-driving delivery services in the future, but will also be a study in how autonomous vehicles can optimize operations and affect customer experience and satisfaction.
The day may not be far off when in-person grocery shopping and long delivery waits become a thing of the past, and Ford, Argo AI, and Walmart are working together to move the needle forward, making self-driving cars and their commercial applications more mainstream and accessible.