Autonomous grocery delivery trials begin in Greenwich
In a first for the UK, an autonomous (aka driverless) vehicle is being used to deliver groceries in an urban, residential environment in the London borough of Greenwich. The service is being trialed as part of the GATEway Project (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment), which is led by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) and funded by UK government and industry.
GATEway is running the grocery trial with Ocado Technology, a division of the online supermarket Ocado.
A “CargoPod” vehicle will be delivering grocery order to more than 100 customers in the Berkeley Homes, Royal Arsenal Riverside development/
Developed by the technology company Oxbotica, the CargoPod is guided by the Selenium autonomy software system, which “enables real-time, accurate navigation, planning and perception in dynamic environments”.
The pod is able to carry a total of 128kg of groceries at a time.
Ocado Technology is using the trials to explore the logistics and practicalities of deploying self-driving vehicles as part of the last mile offering for the Ocado Smart Platform, which it describes as an “end-to-end solution for providing bricks and mortar grocery retailers around the world with a shortcut for moving online”.
The partners in the project said that the study aims to look at both the commercial opportunities of self-driving technology and also how it functions alongside people in a residential environment.
Simon Tong, Principal Research Scientist (TRL) and technical lead for the GATEway project, commented: “The GATEway project is unique in that it considers the effect of automated vehicles on the movement of goods as well as the movement of people. This trial with Ocado Technology provides an ideal platform to help us understand how and where these vehicles could best operate and whether people would accept, trust and like them as an automated delivery service in the city.”
“We envisage that cities could benefit massively if deliveries could be made by quiet, zero emission, automated vehicles when congestion is minimal.”
Business Minister Claire Perry also picked up on theme of how autonomous delivery systems could be environmentally and commercially successful: “The GATEway project takes us another step closer to seeing self-driving vehicles on UK roads, and has the potential to reduce congestion in urban areas while reducing emissions. Backed by government, this project firmly establishes the UK as a global centre for developing self-driving innovation.”
More information about the project is available at the website, http://www.GATEway-project.org.uk.
