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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

self-driving delivery

Ocado Invests £10M in Oxbotica to Develop Self-Driving Vehicles

UK-based grocer Ocado announced today that it has invested £10 million (~$13.8M USD) in autonomous vehicle (and fellow UK) company Oxbotica. The investment is part of an broader, multi-year deal to develop self-driving hardware and software.

For Ocado, autonomous vehicle tech could have a number of uses, from self-driving warehouse vehicles to delivery vans to smaller autonomous robots.

That Ocado bought Oxbotica to bring autonomy further up and down its tech stack makes a lot of sense. The grocer already makes autonomous smart warehouses filled with robots zipping along grids assembling items for grocery orders. It’s natural to extend that autonomy throughout its warehouses and into delivery vehicles. It’s easy to envision robots picking and packing grocery orders, which are then handed off to warehouse robot that places it in a self-driving delivery van that drives off to a customer’s house.

Ocado has also shown that it’s not shy about spending money on autonomous systems. Last year purchased Kindred Systems and Haddington Dynamics to enhance its robotics capabilities. And prior to that it led the $9 million Seed round in cafeteria robot company Karakuri.

Ocado’s investment in Oxbotica actually caps off what has been a big week for autonomous vehicles. Udelv announced its new self-driving Transporter platform. Domino’s tapped Nuro to make autonomous pizza deliveries in Houston, Texas. And Walmart announced it had invested in self-driving startup, Cruise.

It’s also been a big news week for Ocado. The company’s technology powers Kroger’s Customer Fulfillment Centers, the first of which opened up in Monroe, Ohio this week. For its part, Kroger has dabbled in self-driving delivery before through a partnership with Nuro.

If you want to learn more about robotics in grocery, be sure to attend ArticulATE, our food automation virtual summit happening on May 18. There will be a number of autonomous vehicle companies as well as Karakuri speaking!

Walmart Invests in Self-Driving Car Company, Cruise

Walmart announced today that it has invested an undisclosed sum in autonomous driving company Cruise. Walmart’s investment is part of a larger $2.75 billion round of funding being raised by Cruise.

The investment comes after five months of the two companies working together. In November, Walmart announced it would pilot the use of Cruise’s self-driving vehicles for grocery delivery in Scottsdale, Arizona.

As we reported back in November, its partnership with Cruise ticked off a couple of boxes for Walmart. First, the retailer has been adding automation throughout its logistics and fulfillment stack to keep up with the increase in grocery (and other) e-commerce. Walmart is using Gatik trucks for middle-mile deliveries, adding automated fulfillment centers to its stores, and robotic curbside pickup kiosks.

But the Cruise relationship also helps with Walmart’s environmental goals. Cruise’s self-driving cars are 100 percent electric, and Walmart has a goal of achieving zero emissions across all its operations by 2040 and using 100 percent renewable energy by 2035.

Commercial use of self-driving vehicles is certainly getting a big push this year. One of Walmart’s middle-mile delivery routes in Arkansas will go full driverless this year. And just this week Udelv announced an entirely new line of Transporter autonomous delivery vehicles, while Domino’s announced it would be using Nuro’s self-driving pod vehicles for pizza delivery in Texas.

Self-driving cars on public roads still have a ways to go before they become mainstream, as there is still plenty of regulation that needs to be ironed out. But getting a financial push from giants like Walmart will certainly go a long way to getting self-driving vehicles on the road and to our doors (with groceries).

If you’re interested in the future of self-driving vehicle delivery, be sure to attend ArticulATE, our food robotic summit on May 18. Gatik, Pix and other players in the space will speak!

Udelv Launches New “Transporter” Delivery Vehicle, Will Use Mobileye’s Self-Driving Tech

Self-driving delivery startup Udelv announced today that it is launching a new “Transporter” vehicle that will use autonomous driving technology from Mobileye, an Intel company.

The new Transporter marks a couple of shifts for Udelv. First, the Transporter abandons the company’s traditional cargo delivery van form factor in favor of a more pod-like “skateboard” vehicle. The box shape is larger than the Nuro pod, and there is no longer space for a driver. Details such as range weren’t provided, but the Transporter is capable of traveling at 65 mph.

In addition to a new shape, Udelv is also shifting strategy by licensing out the self-driving technology from Mobileye. Up until this point, Udelv had been developing its own autonomous driving system. Mobileye Drive has EyeQTM SoC-based L4 compute, sensors and software and Mobileye’s Road Experience Management AV mapping solution. The Transporters will be capable of Level 4 self-driving, point-to-point operation. Udelv’s teleoperation system will allow the vehicles to be manually controlled for more complex situations such as parking lots, loading zones, apartment complexes and private roads.

One thing the new Transporters don’t have is temperature-controlled cargo bays. When asked about that during a live video press conference last week, Udelv Co-Founder and CEO Daniel Laury said that the company decided to forego refrigeration and temperature control to save on battery power. He also said that Udelv’s existing cargo bay setup provided ample temperature control for roughly an hour, even in the 110 degree weather of Phoenix, Arizona. He also said that frozen foods should be shipped with ice packs.

While the Transporter can do consumer deliveries, Udelv is focused on B2B deliveries, calling the middle mile low-hanging fruit. As we’ve seen with Gatik, limiting delivery routes to fixed, repeatable points (e.g., distribution warehouse to store location) avoids the complications that come with consumer deliveries. This in turn can make middle-mile delivery vehicles easier to pass muster with regulatory bodies and get on the roads faster.

Udelv and Mobileye plan to produce more than 35,000 Transporters by 2028, with commercial operations starting in 2023. The companies have their firs pre-order of 1,000 vehicles from Donlen, a U.S. commercial fleet leasing and management company.

Gatik Partners with Isuzu North America to Develop Autonomous Medium Duty Trucks

Gatik, which makes self-driving delivery vehicles for the middle-mile, announced today that it is collaborating with Isuzu North America on a project to develop and evaluate fully autonomous medium-duty trucks.

The first vehicles the two companies will work on will integrate Gatik’s autonomous driving technology into a number of Isuzu’s N-Series trucks. Together the two companies will produce SAE Level 4 delivery vehicles with redundant systems.

Gatik has had a busy 2021 so far. In February, the company announced its electrification plans and debuted its first Electric Autonomous Box Truck built on Ford Transit 350 HDs. Earlier this month, Gatik announced that it received funding from Ontario’s (Canada) Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network to help winterize its self-driving technology. (Driving in inclement weather requires a more sophisticated approach than driving in bright, sunny weather because of poor visibility, changing road conditions, etc.)

Unlike other self-driving startups, Gatik only works on autonomous vehicles for the middle-mile, which is typically between two destinations run by the same business. For example, Gatik trucks would go back and forth between a company’s distribution warehouse and a retail location. Because middle-mile routes are limited, fixed and repeatable, Gatik’s self-driving systems don’t have to deal with as many variables (new streets, different traffic patterns, etc.) as other, consumer-ended autonomous vehicles. This, in turn, helps its vehicles pass muster with regulators and allows Gatik get to market quickly. For instance, Gatik will make one of the Arkansas routes it drives for Walmart fully driverless this year.

In today’s press announcement, Gatik said that the first trucks from its collaboration with Isuzu North America will be deployed this year.

If you want to learn more about the autonomous middle mile, Gatik will be speaking at our upcoming ArticulATE virtual summit! Get your ticket today!

Chipotle Invests in Self-Driving Delivery Vehicle Company Nuro

QSR chain Chipotle announced today that it has invested in autonomous delivery vehicle startup, Nuro. The amount invested was not disclosed and according to the press announcement, Chipotle’s investment is part of Nuro’s Series C round, which was announced last November.

Chipotle has been playing the digital long game, adding features like advanced “Chipotlanes” for drive-thru customer. That shift was one reason it was able to weather the pandemic relatively well. According to today’s press release, Chipotle’s digital business grew over 174% year over year in 2020. On top of that, Chipotles also got into the ghost kitchen game last November as dining rooms remained closed thanks to COVID.

Tying these threads together, it’s not hard to see how digital ordering, high-tech drive-thrus, ghost kitchens and self-driving vehicles could all work together. An autonomous Chipotle pod pulls into a Chipotlane, a human (or conveyor belt!) puts the order in the pod, which then drives off to make the delivery. Repeat all day long.

The good thing about Nuro’s low-speed vehicles is that they travel faster and can go farther than a sidewalk robot like Starship or Kiwibot. Plus, Nuro’s technology has gotten approvals from both the federal government and the State of California. Nuro’s self-driving pods have actually been operating without human intervention for some time now.

But! Nuro’s pods are half the size of a regular car and have two compartments that can haul a week’s worth of groceries. The Nuro pod seems… excessive for carrying a burrito across town. I wonder if Chipotle will outfit its own Nuro pods with an automat-like cubby system to hold multiple orders. Or, perhaps they will initially reserve the use of Nuros for corporate catering, which bundles together a bunch of orders.

Regardless, a big QSR brand like Chipotle investing in autonomous vehicles is not just a feather in the cap (and money in the bank) for Nuro. It could help boost the overall autonomous delivery sector.

If you are curious about the future of autonomous vehicle food delivery, be sure to attend our ArticulATE food robotics virtual conference on May 18!

Gatik Gets $9 Million (CAD) to Winterize its Autonomous Middle-Mile Delivery Tech

Gatik, which makes autonomous delivery vehicles for the middle-mile, announced today that it has received $997,706 million CAD (~$788,511 USD) from Ontario’s Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network (AVIN) R&D Partnership Fun, along with $8 million CAD (~$6.32 million USD) in unspecified “industry contribution.” The new funding will go towards winterizing Gatik’s autonomous driving technology.

Gatik develops self-driving delivery trucks for the middle mile, which typically means between two points within a company’s network, e.g. between a warehouse and a store.

The Ontario government will help Gatik’s autonomous driving technology withstand inclement weather. Right now, a lot of self-driving pilots and tests happen in sunny climates such as Arizona, Texas and California. Bright, sunny weather makes it easier for self-driving vehicles to navigate because road conditions are dry and the surrounding environment is clearer for the vehicle’s systems to “see.”

But if self-driving technology is ever to reach mass market scale, it must be able to operate in all kinds of weather. Not only will autonomous vehicles need to “see” in rain and fog and snow, they will also have to safely drive on wet and icy roads. Another self-driving delivery startup that has “ruggedized” their vehicles for harsh conditions include Refraction, which operates out of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Gatik already operates a small fleet of autonomous delivery trucks in Canada. Last November, Canadian grocery chain Loblaw started using a five Gatik trucks to run food between automated picking facilities and retail stores. Gatik, which is headquarted in Palo Alto, CA, has been expanding its Canadian presence. The company recently moved into a 12,000 sq. ft. research facility in Toronto and expects to double its workforce there over the coming year. As part of its funding arrangement, AVIN will help Gatik attract and retain engineering talent in Ontario.

Last month, the company debuted its first electric delivery vehicle, which has a range of 120 miles and takes only 1.5 hours to charge. The company will also be running two delivery routes for Walmart in Arkansas and Louisina. The Arkansas route will go completely driverless (i.e., no human backup) this year, and the Louisiana route will be the first to use Gatik’s electric trucks.

Operating only within the middle mile makes it easier for Gatik to bring its autonomous driving tech to market. By focusing on the middle mile, the delivery trucks only need to navigate between two fixed points. By avoiding consumer delivery (the so-called “last mile”), Gatik limits the number of variables its trucks will encounter on a given route.

This narrow, middle-mile approach combined with winterized driving capability could give Gatik a huge boost in getting to more markets quickly.

PIX Moving Raises Pre-Series A Round of Funding for Self-Driving “Skateboard” Chassis

PIX Moving, a Chinese company that makes chassis for self-driving vehicles, announced at the end of last week that it has raised a Pre-Series A round of funding. Details in the English-language press release provided to The Spoon didn’t provide a specific dollar amount, only saying it had raised “tens of millions” in Chinese Yuan. The only investor listed in this round is Guizhou Transportation Planning Survey&design Academe Co., ltd.

Dubbed the “skateboard,” PIX’s chassis can be used to power a number of different types of low-speed autonomous vehicles. Most relevant to Spoon readers, restaurant or third-party delivery companies could use affix lockers on top of PIX’s skateboard to make a mobile automat, or a grocer could create a temperature-controlled store on wheels.

According to today’s press announcement, 23 types of vehicles have been developed using PIX’s platform, and vehicles have been delivered to roughly 100 customers around the world. To help speed up production of its skateboard, PIX has also developed Lightsaber, a 3D metal printing manufacturing system that removes the need for molds.

When we last checked in with PIX, the company was still navigating the various regulations around self-driving vehicles in China and the U.S., though the company had deployed vehicles to private campuses in both countries.

While self-driving vehicles still have a number of hurdles to overcome before they go mainstream, they have gotten much closer to hitting the road, as it were, over the past year. Last year, Nuro’s self-driving pod-like vehicle got approvals from the federal and California governments to operate on public roads. More recently, Gatik, which builds autonous delivery trucks for the middle mile, announced that it would operate two of its routes without human drivers this year.

As it moves closer to market, PIX said it will use its new funding to mass produce its vehicles for a variety of applications.

Nuro Gets Regulatory Approval for Self-Driving Delivery in California

Autonomous food delivery revved a few miles forward today. Nuro, a company that makes self-driving vehicles for delivery, announced it is receiving the first-ever Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Permit from the California DMV. According to an email sent to The Spoon, this gives Nuro permission to launch a commercial autonomous vehicle service in California (which would be the first in the state). 

In layman’s terms, that means Nuro can now delivery groceries, household items, and other goods to customers’ doorsteps via its own self-driving vehicles. 

These pod-like vessels are roughly half the size of a regular car and completely autonomous. There isn’t even room for a human drive to sit in the vehicle, which travels at a max of 25 miles per hour. 

The news follows Nuro’s $500 million fundraise from earlier this month, as well as the testing permit Nuro received in April to operate on public roads in California.

Regulatory approval, or lack thereof, is one of the major factors inhibiting widespread adoption of self-driving vehicles for food and grocery delivery. State and local governments have to ensure public safety on roads, sidewalks, bridges, and other throughways before they can allow fleets of unmanned vehicles to be unleashed in cities and towns. That explains why some companies, including Starship and Kiwi, started on college campuses.

But Starship and Kiwi rover bots that are considerably smaller than Nuro’s R2 vehicle, which wouldn’t in all likelihood easily drive through the camps quad. The Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Permit means Nuro won’t have to resort to such locations in order to make its delivery services available to U.S. residents. 

Nuro said in today’s email that it will start delivery service with existing partners in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties in the new year. Service will begin with the company’s autonomous Prius vehicles and eventually transition to the company’s “full fleet” of both Priuses and R2s. 

Also this week, Nuro acquired autonomous trucking company Ike. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Autonomous Middle-Mile Company Gatik Raises $25M

Autonomous vehicle startup Gatik announced today that it has raised a $25 million Series A round of funding. The round was co-led by Wittington Ventures and Innovation Endeavors with participation from FM Capital and Intact Ventures, as well as existing investors Dynamo Ventures, Fontinalis Partners, AngelPad and others. This brings the total amount raised by Gatik to $29.5 million.

Unlike other players in the self-driving delivery space, the Palo Alto, California-based Gatik is focused on the middle-mile — that is, the intra-location routes for a business, for example warehouse to store, store to store, etc.

The advantage of this, from a self-driving vehicle perspective, is that these middle-mile routes are fixed and repeated. This reduces the amount of “thinking” that a self-driving vehicle has to do as it carries goods around because it’s not encountering as many new scenarios. These fixed routes can also help put regulators creating laws around self-driving vehicles more at ease because of their limited scope and reach.

From a business’ perspective, like a grocer, a fleet of autonomous middle-mile vehicles could run all day, every day, ensuring that locations are always fully stocked. In its press announcement, Gatik said that its autonomous vehicles are operating up to seven days a week, 12 hours a day, on single routes up to 300 miles.

Along with its funding announcement, Gatik today also announced that Canada’s Loblaw grocery chain will deploy a fleet of five Gatik vehicles for middle mile delivery in Toronto starting in January 2021. Gatik’s cargo trucks feature temperature control, so they can be used for the transport of cold and frozen foods as well.

In the Loblaw press announcement, Gatik said that its autonomous vehicles will run between automated picking facilities and retail stores, and allows for inventory pooling across multiple location, as well as contactless delivery.

November has been a busy month for autonomous delivery. Last week Walmart announced a partnership with Cruise for self-driving grocery delivery. Nuro announced it had raised another $500 million for its self-driving pod vehicle solution. Part of the reason for all of this is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has accelerated interest in contactless delivery options to reduce human-to-human interaction.

Gatik has previously worked with Walmart, and says it has conducted 30,000 autonomous orders for multiple Fortune 500 customers across North America.  

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post said Gatik raised $22.5 million. We regret the error.

PIX Moving Makes a Customizable Autonomous Chassis for Delivery

There are a variety of different autonomous vehicles of all shapes and sizes coming to market: From the cargo vans of Udelv, to the pod-like R2 from Nuro, all the way down to the cooler sized sidewalk robots from Starship.

Chinese company Pix Moving is taking a bit of a different approach to autonomous vehicles by removing most of the vehicle. The company is building a self-driving chassis platform on top of which its customers can build whatever they like.

So a big restaurant chain could create a mobile pod of lockers for meal delivery, or a grocery store could create a temperature-controlled store on wheels. A large warehouse-type store could just attach a flat base for moving inventory around.

PIX’s chassis is electric and low-speed, which allows it to sidestep some of the more complex regulations associated with full-sized, full-speed autonomous vehicles. All four wheels of the PIX chassis are steerable, making it highly maneuverable. It’s also 3D printed, so its lightweight and there are fewer parts. And, like any autonomous vehicle, it is packed with an array of sensors and cameras to navigate and avoid obstacles.

I spoke with Chase Cao, PIX COO, by phone this week and he explained that his company is currently navigating the rules and regulations both in China and the U.S. to get its self-driving platform running on public roads. In the meantime, its chassis is being used on some private corporate campuses in both countries. Right now, PIX sells its chassis outright, though Cao said they may look at more of a leasing model in the future.

PIX is worth watching, especially as it relates to food delivery, because of the flexibility of its platform. By pushing the design of the compartments that carry the cargo to its customers (restaurants, grocers, etc.), those compartments can be tailored to a specific set of needs (size, temperature, etc.). This can then create more efficient delivery, and thereby generating even more demand for autonomous delivery.

In other words, there will be even more variety of self-driving vehicles coming to our roads.

Walmart to Test Autonomous Grocery Delivery With Cruise’s Electric Cars

Walmart announced today that it is hooking up with self-driving electric car company Cruise to experiment with autonomous grocery delivery. The two will pilot a program in Scottsdale, Arizona starting early next year.

The corporate blog post announcing the partnership was light on details, so we don’t know how many stores in the Scottsdale area will be participating, where the service areas will be or how big the fleet of self-driving vehicles will be.

This isn’t Walmart’s first ride with self-driving delivery vehicles. In the summer of 2018, Walmart partnered with Waymo in a small pilot to autonomously chauffeur people from their homes to Walmarts to pick up their orders. The goal of that pilot was to learn more about curbside pick up. In 2019, Walmart worked with autonomous van company Gatik for deliveries along the “middle mile” between its stores. And at the end of 2019, Walmart announced it was using Nuro’s self-driving pod vehicles for grocery delivery in Houston, Texas.

This time around, Walmart’s pitch is less about self-driving and more about the environment, as Cruise’s vehicles are all 100 percent electric. Should this pilot prove successful, it will align with Walmart’s stated goal of achieving zero emissions across all its operations by 2040, including the electrification of all of its vehicles.

Walmart and other retailers will need to offer all the delivery options they can in the coming years. Online grocery is projected to hit 21.5 percent of total grocery sales by 2025, which means grocers will need to boost their capacity for increased delivery. Walmart is already among those leading that charge with two-hour delivery as well as it’s Walmart+ delivery service, which gives members free unlimited delivery. The company has even enlisted Instacart for help with same day grocery delivery.

Full-sized self-driving vehicles still have a lot of regulatory hurdles to overcome, but kudos to Walmart for helping push the technology forward (while getting food to our doors).

Gatik Launches Self-Driving Box Truck for Middle Mile Deliveries

Gatik, an autonomous vehicle startup focused on middle mile delivery, announced a new self-driving box truck today. The new trucks feature temperature control, allowing them to transport cold and frozen food and goods.

Don’t expect to see these self-driving box trucks in your neighborhood. Gatik’s service is meant for the middle mile, meaning it shuttles deliveries between business locations, not to a consumer’s front door. For example, last year Walmart announced it was using Gatik to move food between its own store locations.

The middle mile is actually ripe for autonomous driving. Self-driving vehicles are good with set routes that are heavily traveled. Keeping within a limited scope of travel means the vehicles’ self-driving systems don’t have to contend with the complexities of traveling through busy neighborhoods, and the limited geography can be more appealing to local regulators wary of unleashing fully autonomous vehicles on public roads.

Gatik’s new self-driving trucks are also arriving during a global pandemic when the world is trying to reduce human-to-human contact. Autonomous vehicles can remove at least one human from the supply chain equation, which, when multiplied across multiple industries, companies, and supply routes can add up pretty quickly.

Autonomous vehicles can also operate without breaks, helping keep stores better stocked, which we’ve seen can be an issue when people are panic shopping. Gatik said it’s been shuttling Walmart deliveries 12 hours each day, 7 days each week since July of last year. 

The COVID-19 outbreak could accelerate the acceptance of autonomous vehicles on the road. Nuro got the greenlight from the state of California to further test its self-driving pod-like vehicles on public roads. Refraction is using its autonomous REV-1 for restaurant and grocery delivery in Ann Arbor, MI. And Starship robots are making food deliveries in Tempe, AZ and in Fairfax, VA.

Gatik says that it has delivered more than 15,000 orders for multiple retail customers across North America and that its new box truck is the first autonomous delivery vehicle with temperature control capabilities. Gatik just might make the middle mile very cool for self-driving vehicles.