Earlier this summer, Kroger, one of America’s largest supermarket retailers, and Nuro, maker of one of the world’s first driverless delivery vehicles, announced a partnership to begin testing grocery delivery using Nuro’s robots. Through the new self-driving delivery vehicles, customers will receive their groceries at their curb – safely and quickly, the company says.
The pilot will take place at Fry’s Food Stores in Scottsdale. Customers can place delivery orders via frysfood.com or the Fry’s Food Stores mobile app and place their order based on slot availability. Grocery orders can be scheduled for same-day or next-day delivery by Nuro’s fleet of self-driving vehicles. The cost is a $5.95 flat fee with no minimum order.
“Scottsdale is proud to be the home of Kroger and Nuro’s partnership,” said Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane. “We welcome innovative technology that can benefit the lives of Scottsdale residents. We feel this partnership holds tremendous potential and promise, and offers our residents real, not-yet-experienced convenience for everyday routines.”
Added Yael Cosset, Kroger chief digital officer, “We’re excited to launch our autonomous vehicle delivery pilot with Fry’s in Scottsdale. Kroger wants to bring more customers the convenience of affordable grocery delivery, and our pilot with Nuro will help us test and learn to understand customer acceptance of autonomous vehicles in our seamless offering. We thank Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane, and the Scottsdale community for being terrific partners and for supporting customer-focused innovation.”
“Arizona is home to some of the most innovative autonomous vehicle testing,” said Nuro Co-Founder Dave Ferguson. “We’re proud to contribute and turn our vision for local commerce into a real, accessible service that residents of Scottsdale can use immediately. Our goal is to save people time, while operating safely and learning how we can further improve the experience.”
Nuro will begin the pilot using its self-driving Toyota Prius fleet and will introduce its custom R1 driverless vehicle this fall.
