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LONDON, April 16 (Reuters) - British online grocer Ocado
will invest 10 million pounds ($13.8 million) in
autonomous vehicle software company Oxbotica as part of a tie-up
that aims to reduce the cost of last-mile delivery and other
logistics, it said on Friday.
The partnership would include all aspects of autonomous
vehicle development, Ocado said, though vehicles that operated
in low-speed urban areas or restricted-access areas, such as
inside its fulfilment centres, would become a reality sooner
than fully autonomous deliveries to consumers' homes.
The two companies started working together 2017 when Ocado
conducted a two-week trial using an early prototype vehicle
doing autonomous deliveries in Greenwich, London.
Oxbotica, based in the university city of Oxford, has
developed software that brings full autonomy to a vehicle
regardless of the vehicle type and the environment in which it
operates.
It also has built a cloud-based system that controls, audits
and monitors autonomous fleets.
The tie-up will initially focus on Ocado's UK operations and
then extend to international markets where grocers use its
online retail platform, such as in the United States, where it
partners Kroger.
Ocado will take a seat on Oxbotica's board after the
investment, which was part of a larger funding round led by BP's
technology investment arm bp Ventures and including
China's Tencent among others.
Oxbotica's co-founder Paul Newman said the two companies
would share their visions 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," he said.
($1 = 0.7267 pounds)
(Reporting by Paul Sandle
Editing by David Goodman
)
Ocado (OCDO)
BP (BP.)