Walmart Driverless Truck Deliveries 'Not a One-Time' Event: Gatik

Calling it a “revolutionary breakthrough” for the autonomous trucking industry, Gatik CEO Gautam Narang said Monday a demonstration of deliveries for Walmart via a driverless truck route in Arkansas is “not a one-time demonstration.” Walmart orders in the retailer’s Bentonville, Arkansas, home base are being moved between a Walmart dark store and a Neighborhood Market via an autonomous truck, the first time Walmart has removed the safety driver from a commercial delivery route “on the middle mile,” said the companies Monday. Narang said the “frequent, revenue-generating, daily runs” are being completed in a range of operating conditions on public roads, “demonstrating the commercial and technical advantages of fully driverless operations on the middle mile.” Gatik’s fully driverless operations, which began in August, include repeated delivery runs multiple times a day, seven days a week on public roads, resulting in “increased speed and responsiveness when fulfilling e-commerce orders, increased asset utilization and enhanced safety for all road users,” said the companies. The autonomous box trucks are an “efficient, safe and sustainable” solution for transporting goods “on repeatable routes” between stores, said Tom Ward, Walmart’s senior vice president-last mile.