The Future Is Here, People Are Already Getting Groceries Delivered By An Autonomous Car
US based grocery store giant Kroger has just announced a partnership with self-driving car startup Nuro. An unmanned on-road vehicle called R1 now brings the grocery for those that order from Kroger. R1&rsquos delivery services come at a cost ie $595 extra and the customers still have to come to the roadside to collect their order.
You might have added a bit of convenience to your grocery shopping by going online or through a simple call to your local vendor instead of going out and doing the shopping yourself. Whatever might be the scenario, the end result is a rider coming up with your grocery at your doorstep. While that might be convenient, it is not as cool as an autonomous robot bringing your grocery to you.
US based grocery store giant Kroger has just announced a partnership with self-driving car startup Nuro. With this, the company is now offering what might be considered as cool and futuristic delivery service to its consumers by officially going driverless.
An unmanned on-road vehicle called R1 now brings the grocery for those that order from Kroger. The vehicle has been designed to take much less space on the road than any of the passenger cars. The R1 has also been specifically designed for the purpose and from the ground up, so it also offers convenience in loading and unloading the groceries.
R1 (Nuro)
Earlier, Kroger depended upon an autonomous fleet of Toyota Prius to deliver the groceries. The vehicles, however, had safety drivers in them as is a mandate in the states. The service was offered in partnership with Nuro in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Nuro still uses human control for the R1. Though it is controlled remotely by the Nuro employees as and when the need be. The R1Ą¯s delivery services come at a cost i.e. $5.95 extra and the customers still have to come to the roadside to collect their order.
Kroger is not the only one with such a service though. Postmates, a food delivery startup has also begun with its own autonomous vehicle service which uses vehicles moving on the sidewalk to deliver the order.
R1 (Nuro)
So is such a concept viable in India. Not really. First, because Indian roads, well, are not exactly a location where you would want an autonomous loaded with groceries roaming around. Secondly, there is not exactly a need to do away with the conventional rider coming to your home and delivering the grocery to your doorstep. So for now, let us just skip this one and consider it a cool concept that is not really applicable here.
