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Wayve partners with Asda to trial self-driving grocery delivery

Wayve
Photo Credit: Wayve

Wayve, the London-based self-driving startup working aggressively on autonomous mobility has now announced to collaborate with supermarket major Asda to use self-driving trucks to carry groceries from its Park Royal outlet in West London.

The year-long experimental initiative will allow the supermarket to test self-drive grocery deliveries to nearly 170,000 residents in 72,000 London houses.

During the trial, a Wayve safety driver will accompany Asda delivery drivers, with the vehicle driving from the shop to the customer’s residence.

Alex Kendall, Co-founder & CEO at Wayve said: “We’re excited to partner with Asda on the largest urban autonomous grocery delivery trial in Europe. The trial is a demonstration of how autonomy can meet fleet owner needs. We started developing our AV technology over five years ago: it’s incredible to see it delivering real value today as part of Asda’s daily operations.”

“We value our work with Asda to build the foundations of future autonomous grocery delivery. Trials like this one accelerate our road to deployment. They provide the learnings required to bring the benefits of AV technology to customers sooner while ensuring that businesses, like Asda, are prepared to deploy AVs at scale.”

Process at play

Asda Park Royal customers can place next-day delivery orders online as usual, picking from the complete selection of online products and a delivery window that suits them; the only difference is that their purchase may be randomly picked to be delivered in a self-driving truck.

When making deliveries during the 12-month trial, an Asda worker and a supervisory Wayve safety driver will be in the van. Asda employees will load and unload the groceries at the customer’s home, but they will be brought in a self-driving vehicle from the shop to the door.

Simon Gregg, Senior Vice President of eCommerce at Asda, said: “Asda has long understood the value of bringing tech innovation to the online grocery sector and we are always looking at new and innovative partnerships to improve delivery options for customers. We believe autonomous technology is an exciting opportunity to shape the future of delivery, not only at our Park Royal store but throughout our nationwide operation.

“Through our partnership with Wayve, we are trialling this technology to understand how it can assist our busy store operations, whilst also adding a unique, reliable and efficient option for Asda customers to have a whole range of products delivered to their doors.”

Wayve has raised around $258M to date, with backing from Microsoft, Sir Richard Branson, and Ocado Group.

Founded in 2017, Wayve is already developing artificial intelligence (AI) software for self-driving cars and now has come up with the next generation of Autonomous Vehicle (AV) software dubbed Wayve’s AV2.0. The tech has been designed to become the most adaptable AV system for fleet operators. It combines the edge of a lean, camera-first sensing suite with the embodied intelligence of an end-to-end deep learning system that continually learns from petabyte-scale driving data provided by Wayve’s partner fleets, including Ocado Group, Asda, and DPD. 

Wayve’s ‘AV2.0’ technology employs machine learning to train its AI software to learn how to drive in any situation through experience. As a result, AV technology is no longer limited by highly detailed maps or pre-defined routes and may autonomously drive anyplace in its urban area, including places it has never visited before.

The system is intended to constantly watch the road, identifying potential threats and making the most secure decisions possible.

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