Walmart Moves Autonomous Vehicle Delivery Pilot to New Market

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart Inc. is launching a pilot program in partnership with autonomous vehicle company Nuro to test delivery in Houston.

The retailer seeks to develop, refine and continue learning how to offer the best end-to-end customer experience through the initiative, Walmart stated.

"Walmart is committed to delivering groceries — with a side of time-saving convenience — through our ever-expanding Grocery Pickup and Delivery service," wrote Tom Ward, senior vice president, digital operations, for Walmart U.S. "As we near the end of 2019, we’ve grown our online grocery footprint to nearly 3,100 pickup locations with deliveries coming from more than 1,600 stores — powered by Walmart’s team of over 50,000 personal shoppers."

Walmart previously piloted grocery delivery via autonomous vehicles across the state of Arizona through a partnership with Burlingame, Calif.-based technology company Udelv, as Convenience Store News previously reported.

"Our unparalleled size and scale have allowed us to steer grocery delivery to the front doors of millions of families — and design a roadmap for the future of the industry," Ward added. "Along the way, we've been test-driving a number of different options for getting groceries from our stores to our customers’ front doors through self-driving technology. We believe this technology is a natural extension of our Grocery Pickup and Delivery service and our goal of making every day a little easier for customers."

Bentonville-based Walmart operates 11,200 stores under 55 banners in 27 countries and e-commerce websites in 10 countries.