Walmart and Gatik Go Driverless in Arkansas and Expand Self-Driving Car Pilot to a Second Location
Walmart Corporate News | December 15, 2020
Walmart continues to take next steps with their autonomous vehicle pilot started last year. Since the pilot began, they have safely driven more than 70,000 operational miles in autonomous mode with a safety driver. With Gatik, Walmart's pilot moves customer orders on a two-mile route between a dark store (a store that stocks items for fulfillment but isn’t open to the public) and a Neighborhood Market in Bentonville, Arkansas.
The next phase is to have Gatik's multi-temperature Autonomous Box Trucks operate driverless on this same route. This achievement marks the first ever driverless operation carried out on the supply chain middle mile for both Gatik and Walmart.
Early next year, the pilot will be expanded to a second location with a longer delivery route and a second use case – delivering items from a Supercenter to a Walmart pickup point, a designated location where customers can conveniently pick up their orders. In Louisiana,
Autonomous Box Trucks will initially have safety drivers on the 20-mile route between New Orleans and Metairie, Louisiana.
Walmart's trials with Gatik are paving the way how we might incorporate autonomous trucks in a new delivery ecosystem.