by Walther Ploos van Amstel
The CART Pitch Event presented by US dunnhumby and Winsight Grocery Business reviewed hundreds of solutions to arrive at the winner: udelv, the first custom-made, public-road autonomous and electric delivery vehicle.
When people think about self-driving cars, they imagine a future where they buy a car that has a “self drive” button that takes them wherever they want to go. But the impact of self-driving technology is likely to be much broader than just driving.
Slow uptake of autonomous vehicles for freight could leave the UK ‘lagging behind other countries and missing the opportunity to reap the benefits of being a market leader in this technology’, according to a report by Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) for the UK Cross River Partnership.
Udelv unveiled its autonomous, electric, last-mile delivery vehicle and made the first public road test deliveries from Draeger’s Market in San Mateo to two nearby customers. The deliver route was a 3 kilometre loop with traffic lights, lane changes, unsignalized left turns and two delivery stops.
Driverless cars have captured imaginations for decades, but the past few years have seen the technology move from dream toward reality. More formally known as autonomous vehicles, these self-driving cars and trucks have the potential to transform not only personal mobility but transportation and delivery as well.
A trial of a fully autonomous electric-powered vehicle (Cargopod) conducting last-mile deliveries for Ocado in Greenwich (UK) ended this month. The vehicle has delivered groceries to more than 100 customers so far. Read more at Freight in the City.
The UK has taken a next step in developing autonomous last-mile mobility with the launch of a driverless shuttle trial in an urban environment. Gateway Project (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment) researchers want to learn how the prototype pod reacts alongside people in a natural environment.
With the rise of e-commerce, consumer preferences have grown increasingly important in the formerly business-oriented parcel-delivery market. Large e-commerce players, as well as various start-ups, have identified last-mile services as a key differentiator. The variety of delivery options and the perceived quality of the delivery service are major decision-making criteria for online customers and hence …