Supermarket chain Asda has begun its year-long trial run to deliver groceries to customers in west London using self-driving vehicles.
Claimed to be the UK’s biggest autonomous grocery home delivery trial, it will cover a catchment area of 72,000 households around Asda’s Park Royal superstore.
The trial, where Jaguar I-Pace electric cars will be used, is launched in partnership with autonomous vehicle technology start-up Wayve.
Asda said its Park Royal customers can place their delivery orders online as usual by selecting a delivery slot. The Leeds-headquartered retail giant’s employees will load and unload the groceries at the customer’s home, but they will be transported from the store to the door in a self-driving vehicle, supervised by a Wayve safety driver.
Asda said the launch of the trial followed its two-year partnership with Wayve that began in 2021.
Wayve will be able to offer autonomous delivery in further locations if the trial is extended to other areas, Asda which is the UK’s second-largest online supermarket with a 20 per cent market share, said.
Asda delivers more than 800,000 orders every week.
Its senior vice president of e-commerce, Simon Gregg, “We are trialling this technology to understand how it can assist our busy store operations”.
