Ford, Walmart and Postmates collaborate to provide automated vehicle delivery
The US-based automotive company, Ford, retail giants Walmart and delivery service Postmates are set to team up to develop a service for delivering groceries and other goods to Walmart’s customers that could eventually be used for self-driving vehicles, CNBC reports.
Ford has already been collaborating with Postmates in order to create delivery services that could employ automated vehicles.
The Walmart project will use human-driven vehicles operated to test how autonomous vehicles would operate.
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It is expected that Ford will roll out commercial production of automated vehicles by 2021 with Miami currently being used as a testing ground for automated delivery service ideas and automated vehicle technology.
The move will see Walmart compete with rivals such as Amazon to reduce the cost of providing good over what industry executives describe as “the last mile” to customers ordering online.
In July, it was announced that Ford would create a new business unit, Ford Autonomous Vehicles, to hold its autonomous vehicle operations. The automotive manufacturer confirmed it would invest $4bn in the unit by 2023.