Delivery

Drones, driverless trucks and zippy little cargo pods could all feature as part of Walmart's future delivery services, and a new agreement with EV outfit Canoo brings another next-gen vehicle into the mix – the Lifestyle Delivery Vehicle (LDV).

Amazon is looking to reduce its carbon footprint in central London with the launch of a micromobility hub for e-cargo bikes and walking couriers, which will replace thousands of traditional van trips each year.

Many of us will be familiar with package deliveries by truck, some may get their hot meals delivered by cargo bike and a few might even have had meds arrive by drone. Now Renault has combined all three for the E-Tech Master OptiModale concept.

Back in January, Elroy Air showed off a pre-production version of an autonomous cargo drone capable of carrying 500-lb loads over 300 miles, and we've now learned FedEx plans to soon put these capabilities to the test.

Eugene-based electric mobility company Arcimoto has teamed up with Silicon Valley autonomous driving startup Faction Technology to transform its three-wheeled electric Fun Utility Vehicle into a "driverless" pod for last-mile deliveries.

Nuro has revealed the design for its 3rd-gen autonomous delivery pod, which can carry more groceries per trip, and comes with an external pedestrian airbag to the front that's "optimized to reduce the force of impact" in the event of collision.

Sydney-based ebike maker Zoomo has announced the US launch of the Zoomo One utility ebike, which has been designed to encourage last-mile delivery operations to make the switch from gas-powered mopeds to cleaner package hauling.

Around this time last year, robotics startup Nuro was granted a deployment permit in California for its autonomous delivery vehicle. Now the company has partnered with convenience store chain 7-Eleven for the first commercial delivery service.

Riding on the back of a US$400 million investment from Luxembourg's GEM Global Yield, startup Biliti Electric is looking to bring the GMW Taskman three-wheeled electric delivery vehicle to the US, debuting at AutoMobility LA on November 17.

It wasn't quite nine months ago that GM introduced BrightDrop as its new brand for electric urban delivery solutions. Now BrightDrop rolls its first production EV600 delivery trucks off the lines, setting a GM-wide record for fastest vehicle development.

Cargo bicycles may indeed be a green option for making urban deliveries, but they can only carry moderately sized loads. The Trailerduck lets bikes haul much more cargo, by matching its power and steering to that of the bike that's towing it.

UK startup Arrival has inched closer to what it sees as the future of safer, cleaner urban deliveries, carrying out a fully autonomous demonstration at a local parcel depot for the first time and now setting its sights on public road testing.