Autonomous cars begin to haul supplies into Texan homes

First, there was the self-checkout.

Now, these are autonomous cars that deliver.

Two Kroger markets in Houston are putting together a stand-alone car program, where orders can be placed online and delivered directly to you without a driver.

The self-driving service will be offered at South Post Oak Road and Buffalo Speedway stores, in accordance with ABC13. Those in Texas can access the service from postal codes 77401, 77096, 77005 and 77025, for same-day or next-day delivery.

The delivery service was designed by the robotics company Nuro, created by two former employees of Google. Kroger and Nuro started working together last year for a test in Scottsdale, Arizona, before starting their expansion this year.

The company reportedly made thousands of driverless deliveries to the Arizona market.

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The company plans to roll out its driverless R1 delivery vehicles to Texas in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, it will use a fleet of Toyota Prius.

"As a first step, we will start delivering our standalone Prius vehicles, so they are passenger vehicles just like the ordinary Prius, to which we have added the detection and the computer so that they can drive them. same, "said Nuro's co-founder and president, Ferguson told ABC13. "There will always be security drivers in them."

R1 vehicles are about half the width and are shorter than most sedans, which, according to Nuro, will limit the risk of collision.

"We generally believe that when you remove passengers from the vehicle, you can make it much safer for all other road users," Ferguson said. "For example, our vehicle is much smaller, much lighter, it collapses somehow in the unlikely event of a collision."

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During the Arizona test, some residents were fortunate enough to see a small robotic car stop to make groceries.

"It was a lot smaller than I thought," Arizona resident Shannon Baggett told AP last August. "I told my husband:" We just got our shopping with a robot. "

Other residents say that they are not quite ready for this type of change.

"I just do not think we have a driverless car yet," said John Jones, a resident of the area, at ABC13.

Customers can place orders on the website or market application for a fee of $ 5.95.

Nuro will increase the number of cars equipped with self-driving hardware and software to around 50, according to Verge. It will be operational in California, Arizona and Texas with drivers driving safety.