Autonomous Trucks
Dive Brief:Kroger plans to deploy a fleet of driverless trucks from autonomous vehicle supplier Gatik to transport goods between an automated e-commerce warehouse in Dallas and multiple grocery stores in that market, the companies said Wednesday. Dive Insight:Kroger expects that the autonomous trucks will enable it to fulfill e-commerce orders more nimbly while cutting costs and providing dedicated capacity for moving products between facilities, according to the announcement. Already, Kroger has been experimenting with driverless home delivery, having partnered with Nuro to transport grocery deliveries to shoppers in Arizona and Texas. Driverless trucks are permitted to operate on roads in Texas by legislation enacted in 2017 by lawmakers in the state. And in October, Canadian grocery chain Loblaw started using autonomous trucks from Gatik to move goods for its online pickup and delivery service in Toronto.