Driverless delivery trial

A driverless vehicle delivered groceries direct to the customer’s door in a fortnight’s trial by online retailer Ocado in Britain.

It carried eight containers with up to 128kg of groceries to deliver coffee, chocolate and other goods, Reuters reports.

“It seemed like a really exciting experience”, Tobie Cusson says of the CargoPod trial in South London.

The experiment involved choosing from a selection of healthy treats, a collection of movie night snacks or high-end coffee and chocolates.

“I despise paying delivery fees when I order online so any types of technology that can reduce the cost of providing a delivery service are very attractive to me,” Cusson says.

When the CargoPod arrives, a container lights up and is opened at the push of a button, technology that Ocado says can be rolled out globally to traditional retailers within a decade.

The vehicle includes cameras and LiDAR sensors – which measure the distance to a target by illuminating it with a pulsed laser light – to detect obstacles.

A safety driver and Ocado delivery person were on board for the trial.

The technology will be in place to roll out driverless deliveries by 2021, Ocado chief technology officer Paul Clarke says.

He says there are areas where using driverless deliveries makes sense.

Ocado has to determine any potential barriers in legislation and insurance.

Last month the British government outlined plans for an Automated and Electrical Vehicles Bill aimed at boosting the self-driving industry.

The government says that industry will be worth £28 billion pounds (NZ$49.66 billion) by 2035.