Ocado invests £10m in self-driving vehicle company

The technology will be used in vehicles that operate inside Ocado’s customer fulfilment centres and the yard areas that surround them, for last-mile deliveries, and kerb-to-kitchen robots.

The retailer hopes the technology will reduce the costs of last-mile delivery and other logistics operations. Ocado expects to see the first prototypes of some early use cases for autonomous vehicles within two years.

Alex Harvey, chief of advanced technology at Ocado, said: “We are excited about the opportunity to work with Oxbotica to develop a wide range of autonomous solutions that truly have the potential to transform both our and our partners’ CFC and service delivery operations, while also giving all end customers the widest range of options and flexibility.”

The Ocado/Oxbotica relationship began in 2017, when the companies conducted a two-week trial using an early prototype delivery vehicle doing autonomous deliveries in Greenwich, London. Ocado says that since the initial trial, Oxbotica has made “significant progress” in developing its platform.