The past year has already changed the way that many of us do our grocery shopping, with more people than ever before turning to online ordering and home delivery.
Now, online retail specialist Ocado is looking to develop systems that can automate the delivery process, with self-driving vehicles and ‘kerb-to-kitchen’ robots that can bring the shopping into the house.
The company has announced a £10m deal with tech firm Oxbotica, which built a self-driving delivery truck previously trialled by Ocado in south-east London.
That trial used a relatively small ‘CargoPod’ vehicle that could deliver up to eight boxes at a time.
It also required the customer to come out of their house to collect the delivery and bring in their own shopping.
The new partnership aims to produce not only more autonomous delivery vehicles of various kinds and sizes, but also forklift trucks for use in Ocado depots and warehouses and the army of robots that transfer the shopping at either end.
As part of the partnership, Ocado will also fit some high-tech sensors and cameras to existing vehicles on the road and in depots to help Oxbotica gather data and develop its autonomous technologies.
Ocado aims to automate the entire delivery process
Alex Harvey, Ocado’s head of advanced technology, said that the ultimate goal was to automate the entire process, from the point at which stock was delivered to its warehouses, to it reaching the customer’s front door, or even their kitchen counters.
This could potentially result in big savings in logistics, with the cost of moving products inside UK fulfilment centres currently equating to around 1.5% of total sales.
The cost of ‘final mile’ delivery is even higher, equating to around 10% of total sales.
Labour makes up about half of these logistics costs, but Ocado, which already uses some robotic technology in its UK fulfilment centres, said that the investment would not impact its current staffing or hiring levels in logistics and operations.
As well as saving costs, the move could help Ocado to switch to a fully electric fleet of delivery vehicles, as well as helping it to react more effectively to demand at peak times.
It is not expected that customers will come face to face with Ocado’s delivery robots for a while, but the firm said that it hoped to see some vehicle prototypes within the next two years.
