Walmart Expanding Autonomous Delivery Truck Trial in Arkansas

Walmart is taking the next step toward autonomous deliveries, expanding its pilot program involving Gatik’s autonomous trucks.

Autonomous delivery is one of the next big steps in retail, with Amazon, Walmart and others experimenting with drones and delivery bots. Walmart appears to be teaming up with Gatik, a startup that is developing autonomous delivery trucks.

According to Business Insider, Walmart says the Gatik pilot program has already logged 70,000 miles in “autonomous mode” with a safety driver present. The company now plans to expand its trial, testing the trucks without a safety driver.

“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, Walmart senior vice president of customer product, said in a statement.

“We’ll be working with Gatik to monitor and gather new data to help us stay on the leading edge of driverless autonomous vehicles,” Ward continued