While seven in 10
Americans remain wary of self-driving cars, they will be soon faced with a new
driverless vehicle species: the unmanned delivery robot. Following a trial in
Scottsdale, Arizona, Nuro’s driverless grocery delivery vehicles are now coming
to Houston, Texas. Two Kroger markets in Houston will be included in the
autonomous delivery program that uses Nuro’s R1 driverless pod.
The service, which
is a collaboration between America’s largest grocery retailer Kroger and
robotics company Nuro, allows customers to place orders online and have their
groceries delivered at their homes by R1 unmanned vehicles. The service will be
offered at stores in South Post Oak Road and Buffalo Speedway and will reach
customers residing in four local zip codes. Buyers can place orders for
same-day or next-day delivery from Kroger’s website or mobile app for a Us$ 5.95
fee.
At the start of the
program, Nuro will use self-driving Toyota Prius vehicles instead of
its R1 pods, just like it did in Arizona. That’s because Nuro has built only
six R1 pods so far, all of which are in use in Scottsdale.
Later this year,
the unmanned R1 vehicles will be introduced. In Scottsdale, it took about four
months from the moment the trial program began with Prius vehicles until the
R1s started deliveries in December 2018.
The self-driving
pod is just over 1,830 mm high and about half the width of a sedan.
Weighing in at 680 kg, it’s designed to carry only cargo, with
enough space for 12 grocery bags. Founded by two ex-Google self-driving
engineers, Nuro recently received a US$ 1 billion cash infusion from Japanese tech
company SoftBank.
