Another autonomous delivery service is here to drop off fresh groceries
In some parts of Silicon Valley, grocery shopping just got a lot easier.
AutoX, the autonomous vehicle startup known for using low-cost, high-resolution cameras for its self-driving vehicle system instead of more common lidar sensors, launched a pilot delivery program in a section of San Jose, California, Monday.
Through an app, customers can order and buy groceries on-demand from the online grocer GrubMarket, and an autonomous vehicle will come to the delivery location (presumably your home) and pop the trunk for you to pick up your groceries. But unlike other on-demand grocery delivery services like Amazon Fresh, this one requires no humans in the delivery process.
The groceries are kept in a temperature-controlled environment in the car so you should be getting fresher produce and items.
The self-driving car also serves as a mobile store with yogurt, juices, and other snacks and drinks available to purchase straight from the car -- it kind of feels like items you'd buy while in the check-out line at the actual grocery store.
“We are enabling two shopping experiences with self-driving cars,” AutoX COO Jewel Li said in a statement about the pilot. “You can order goods from an app and get them delivered by a self-driving vehicle. Or, our self-driving car brings a shelf of goods to you, and you can select and purchase onsite in front of your house.”
California DMV records from last year show the company had two approved cars for road testing. And now those cars are being used for self-driving refrigerated delivery duty. This comes as Kroger's -- the biggest supermarket chain in the U.S. -- launches an autonomous delivery service with Nuro. That service kicked off with a small pilot in Phoenix earlier this month.
The AutoX pilot plans to expand to other Silicon Valley cities and eventually work with other grocery companies.
These companies are determined to show off their autonomous abilities while helping you run errands.
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
