Ocado has completed the UK’s first trials of an autonomous CargoPod delivery in Greenwich in London. The trials have seen the self-driving delivery van delivering grocery orders to over one hundred customers in the Berkeley Homes, Royal Arsenal Riverside development in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
The trial was part of the GATEway Project (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment) a research programme led by TRL and funded by UK government and industry which aims to demonstrate the use of autonomous vehicles for last mile deliveries and mobility.
The CargoPod vehicle was developed by Oxbotica as part of the GATEway project. The trial aims to explore the public’s perceptions and understanding of driverless delivery vehicles. Ocado Technology is using the trials to explore the logistics and practicalities of using self-driving vehicles as part of the last mile offering for the Ocado Smart Platform.
David Sharp, head of 10x department at Ocado Technology, said: “Ocado Technology is delighted to have worked in partnership with the GATEway Project to a complete a very successful grocery delivery trial using driverless vehicles. This project is part of the on-going journey to be at the edge of what is practical and offer our Ocado Smart Platform customers new and exciting solutions for last mile deliveries.”
Graeme Smith, CEO of Oxbotica, said last mile delivery was a growing challenge as cities become denser and more congested. “In this new project, we are working closely with Ocado Technology to deploy our Selenium autonomy system into a novel last-mile delivery application in Greenwich as a part of the GATEway project,” he said.
Image credit: Oxbotica
