The autonomous last-mile delivery vehicle from udelv recently completed its first public road test, completing a 2.5 mile loop from Draeger’s Market in San Mateo, California, to two nearby customers.
During the test, the vehicle obeyed traffic lights, made lane changes, completed unsignalized left turns and made two delivery stops, according to a news release. The vehicle was driven in test mode and supervised by a safety driver.
“Deliveries are the perfect first application for autonomous vehicles,” CEO Daniel Laury said, according to the release. “Customers simply open the locker with a press of a button on their mobile device and the vehicle heads on its way to the next delivery or back to the store. “This is a historic revolution in transportation. We are reinventing deliveries.”
The customized vehicle is built on a fully electric powertrain and comes equipped with 18 secure cargo compartments with automatic doors. The car uses a cloud-based proprietary technology shared between the vehicle, the customer and the merchant. The orange delivery car can drive for up to 60 miles per cycle and load up to 700 pounds of cargo.
An application designed to track and potentially reschedule deliveries is available on iOS. An Android version will be released soon.
The company developed an ultra-low latency teleoperations system to remotely monitor and control the vehicles. It also allows for overrides and human-assisted guidance when necessary.
The company has several technology patents pending and is set to test dozens of udelv vehicles in a few states. They plan to use a subscription based model to roll out the fleet.
“Our customers are very tech-savvy,” Draeger’s Market owner Richard Draeger said, according to the release. “We look forward to adding the udelv autonomous vehicle and its cost reduction factor to our delivery fleet.”
udelv Completes First Public Road Test Delivery
