A couple of months ago, supermarket retailer Kroger and driverless vehicle maker Nuro announced that they were to begin testing grocery delivery using the latter's self-driving pods. Now the partnership has confirmed Scottsdale, Arizona, as the first city to run the pilot.
Customers will be able to place orders at the online portal or mobile app of Fry's Food Stores on East McDowell Rd in Scottsdale from today. During the ordering process, they'll need to pick a suitable slot for same day or next day delivery and a flat fee of US$5.95 will be applied at checkout, no matter the size of the order.
"Kroger wants to bring more customers the convenience of affordable grocery delivery, and our pilot with Nuro will help us test and learn to understand customer acceptance of autonomous vehicles in our seamless offering," said Kroger's Yael Cosset.
Fry's customers won't get their groceries delivered by Nuro pods straight away though. Initially, Nuro will make use of an existing fleet of autonomous Toyota Prius vehicles, with a custom R1 driverless delivery vehicle rolling into Scottsdale later in the year.