Walmart to commence deliveries with driverless trucks from 2021

Taking its autonomous vehicle pilot with a startup called Gatik to the next level, retail giant Walmart is now planning to start deliveries with driverless truck in the US state Arkansas starting next year.

“This achievement marks a new milestone that signifies the first ever driverless operation carried out on the supply chain middle mile for both Gatik and Walmart,” Tom Ward, Senior Vice President of Customer Product, Walmart US, said in a statement on Tuesday.

The move comes after Walmart last year began an autonomous vehicle pilot with Gatik to move customer orders on a two-mile route between a dark store — a store that stocks items for fulfillment but isn’t open to the public — and a neighborhood market in Bentonville, Arkansas.