Gatik and Loblaw’s first fully-autonomous delivery vehicle is set to begin operations in January 2021. Photo: Gatik
With Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta released to a limited number of drivers, consumers are talking a lot about autonomous driving technology lately. And in the latest news of the new tech, two North American companies
On Monday, companies Gatik and Loblaw announced a partnership to deploy a fleet of delivery vehicles that are fully autonomous in Toronto. The fleet will become fully active starting in January 2021, when it will start making contactless, autonomous deliveries to Loblaw stories throughout Canada, marking the very first fully-autonomous delivery fleet in Canada.
Gatik, which is developing level 4 autonomous short-haul delivery trucks, raises $22.5M Series A and says it has signed a deal with Canadian retailer Loblaw (Kyle Wiggers/VentureBeat) pic.twitter.com/PIFKpAyRT8
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Lauren Steinberg, Loblaw’s Senior Vice President, said in a statement, “As more Canadians turn to online grocery shopping, we’ve looked at ways to make our supply chain more efficient. Middle-mile autonomous delivery is a great example.”
She continued, “With this initial roll-out in Toronto, we are able to move goods from our automated picking facility multiple times a day to keep pace with PC Express online grocery orders in stores around the city.”
With the goal of keeping up with new online ordering needs, Loblaw is looking to make its supply chain more efficient, and Gatik is likely able to provide just that with its new autonomous fleet. In any case, we can look forward to seeing how the first run of deliveries turns out, starting early next year.
