Ocado has announced today that it has partnered with Oxbotica, to develop a range of autonomous vehicles.
The use cases range from vehicles that operate inside of Ocado’s Customer Fulfilment Centre buildings and the yard areas that surround them, all the way to last-mile deliveries.
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. Since the initial trial, Oxbotica has made progress in developing its platform, leading to today’s announcement of a broader relationship that includes both Ocado’s financial investment and a commercial collaboration agreement.
Ocado will build teams of engineers within its existing Advanced Technology division to work with Oxbotica on these diverse use cases.
The division is independent from the engineering team that develops core OSP software and automation. The initial development work will focus on UK operations, and will then extend to international markets where Ocado’s partners operate.
Paul Newman, Co-Founder & CTO of Oxbotica said: “This is an excellent opportunity for Oxbotica and Ocado to strengthen our partnership, sharing our vision for the future of autonomy. By combining both companies’ cutting-edge knowledge and resources, we hope to bring our Universal Autonomy vision to life and continue to solve some of the world’s most complex autonomy challenges.”
