July 25, 2019
By Tom Ward, Senior Vice President, Digital Operations, Walmart U.S.
We know our customers are time-starved and need us now more than ever. That’s why we’re bringing the best of Walmart’s Grocery Pickup and Delivery to communities across the country. There’s no doubt customers love the convenience, so we’re testing new and innovative capabilities that will make us even better and shape the future of retail for everyone.
We’ve been exploring a few pilot projects with self-driving car companies that include both customer delivery as well as transporting goods between our locations. Today, we’re announcing a new pilot with autonomous vehicle company, Gatik.
In March, Arkansas passed legislation allowing for autonomous vehicles to operate in the state. With the help of Gatik, we’re making sure we stay on the cutting edge of grocery pickup by testing an autonomous vehicle to move customer orders on a two-mile route in Bentonville between two of our stores. We aim to learn more about the logistics of adding autonomous vehicles into our online grocery ecosystem, operation process changes and more opportunities to incorporate this emerging technology.
We’re always out to help our customers, and that means helping them save time and money. So, we’re using our position of strength to reinvent the shopping experience to take us, and busy families, well into the future.
