Delivery service Postmates Inc will join Ford Motor Co (F) to collaborate and design a service to deliver groceries and goods to Walmart (WMT) consumers using autonomous cars.
This is in line with Ford’s push to rely on autonomous vehicles to develop businesses. The auto giant was already working with Postmates, and it now will be tried on a pilot program involving Walmart. However, the supermarket chain will use human-driven cars at first, before relying on self-driven vehicles.
Meanwhile, Ford and its partners will test self-driven cars in Miami to test how effective the delivery will be. According to Ford, commercial production of automated vehicles is expected to commence by 2021.
The automaker, back in July, has hinted the creation of a new business unit — Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC — to include its self-driving vehicle operations, and it expects to invest about $4 billion in the venture by 2023.