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(Corrects paragraph two to remove timeframe, adds 12-month
timeframe to paragraph eight)
By Nick Carey
LONDON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - British online grocer Ocado
is investing 10 million pounds ($13.6 million) in
self-driving technology startup Wayve and a partnership to
develop autonomous grocery deliveries that can handle tough
traffic on busy city streets.
Wayve's technology will be used in an autonomous delivery
trial using a number of Ocado delivery vans on busy London
routes, with a human driver overseeing the tests, the two
companies said on Wednesday.
"This is a recognition that we're uniquely positioned to
build a technology than can deliver for the last-mile delivery
space as well adapt and scale globally," said Alex Kendall, CEO
of London-based Wayve.
The investment from Ocado brings Wayve's total funding
raised so far to $60 million.
"We've been impressed with Wayve's approach to solving this
most complex of challenges and are excited to accelerate our
capabilities so that our retail partners globally can take
advantage of them at the earliest opportunity," Ocado's head of
advanced technology Alex Harvey said in a statement.
A portion of Ocado's delivery fleet will also be fitted with
data collection devices to understand and learn how human
drivers handle traffic so Wayve can train its own system to deal
with the complexities of driving on the road.
Wayve CEO Kendall said the company's technology relies on
machine learning that uses camera sensors fitted on the outside
of the vehicle.
The startup will also begin a 12-month trial of autonomous
delivery vans with British supermarket chain Asda in London in
early 2022.
Earlier this year, Ocado invested 10 million pounds in
Oxford-based autonomous vehicle software company Oxbotica as
part of a tie-up that aims to reduce the cost of last-mile
delivery and other logistics.
That partnership will initially focus on Ocado's UK
operations and then extend to international customers such as
U.S. grocery chain Kroger.
($1 = 0.7343 pounds)
(Reporting By Nick Carey; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
