Reviews autonomous driving: Walmart expands pilot program - competition for Tesla & Co?

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Walmart is expanding its self- driving vehicle effort, taking it a step closer to the futuristic goal of getting goods to front doors with little human interaction. Stocks · Walmart (WMT).

Walmart is known as a global retail group and controls a large part of the US market. But what many may not know: the retail giant is also active in the field of autonomous driving together with a startup.

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• Walmart is working with Gatik on a pilot project for autonomous driving

• Panel vans on test track should now start without a driver

• Another location with a longer route from next year

For over a year The US retail giant is working on a pilot program for autonomous driving in which Walmart relies on autonomous panel vans from the startup Gatik. This pilot program is now to be expanded.

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Walmart announced Tuesday that it will begin using fully driverless trucks in Arkansas next year as it expands its autonomous vehicle pilot program with Gatik. For the first time, Gatik's multi-temperature autonomous box trucks will move customer orders on a 2-mile route between a dark store and a

We’ve been exploring a few pilot projects with self- driving car companies that include both customer delivery as well as Today, we’re announcing a new pilot with autonomous vehicle company , Gatik. In March, Arkansas passed legislation allowing for autonomous vehicles to operate in the state.

Next Step: Driverless

The pilot project transported goods two miles between a distribution center and a Walmart store in Bentonville, Arkansas. Since then, as Walmart announced in a press release, more than 70,000 operating miles have been covered in autonomous mode with a safety driver on board.

Now the next step is imminent: Walmart wants the autonomous multi-temperature panel vans from Gatik to drive the route without a driver. "This achievement marks a new milestone that will be the first driverless operation on the middle mile of the supply chain for both Gatik and Walmart," said Walmart. Now they are working together with Gatik "to monitor and collect new data" and thus to stay "up to date with driverless autonomous vehicles".

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Second location

The project is now also to be expanded to a second location. A longer route is being tested: operations on a 20-mile route between New Orleans and Metairie, Louisiana, are scheduled to start at the beginning of this year. A second use case is also being tested: the delivery of items from a super center to a Walmart pick-up point. Customers who live further away from the Walmart store in New Orleans should benefit from this service of being able to conveniently pick up their goods at a certain location nearby. "With 90 percent of Americans living within 10 miles of a Walmart, a closer shop isn't always the answer. Maybe it's just a pick-up location where an autonomous vehicle delivers in a constant loop," Walmart said in its press release. As with the already tried and tested shorter route in Arkansas, the autonomous panel vans in Louisiana will initially start with a driver on board for safety.

The tests that the retail group is carrying out with Gatik are, according to Walmart, "only two of many use cases" that are being tested with autonomous vehicles. So there may be more interesting news about autonomous driving and how it can be integrated into a delivery ecosystem in the future. It remains to be seen whether Walmart's program can also compete with companies such as Tesla or Xpeng , which are active in the field of autonomous driving, in the future. Finanzen.net editorial team