Kroger (NYSE:KR) announced that the company will be testing a food delivery service using driverless cars.
The grocery chain said on Thursday that it is teaming up with autonomous driving technology company Nuro to deliver groceries to its customers using autonomous vehicles. The partnership marks yet another initiative designed to keep up or surpass other major U.S. grocery companies who are looking to get an edge over the rest of the pack.
One of the toughest challenges of the industry has always been that of the “last mile delivery,” which marks the final step of getting a product to a shopper’s home. The concept is so difficult to apply to a company’s business model because of the difficulties of traveling with fragile products such as fresh food.
Plus, an initiative such as the one by Kroger and Nuno is further complicated by the fact that some populations across the U.S. are much less dense than other, making some grocery delivery trips longer than others. Kroger is also investing in British online grocer Ocado in order to build automated warehouses through the U.S. Plus, it bought Home Chef.
Walmart (NYSE:WMT) recently announced that it was teaming up with Postmates to expand its online grocery delivery program. Meanwhile, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) said earlier today that the company planned on working with entrepreneurs who run their own local delivery networks of up to 40 delivery vans.
KR stock fell about 2% on Thursday following the company’s autonomous driving vehicle technology announcement for food delivery.
