Commencing a multi-year partnership, which will see the two companies work together to create a new vehicle fleet, Ocado has invested in autonomous vehicle company Oxbotica.

Ocado and Oxbotica will collaborate to integrate Oxbotica’s autonomous software platform into a variety of vehicles, including those that operate inside the grocer’s customer fulfilment centres (CFCs), as well as last-mile and kerb-to-kitchen delivery solutions.

As per the terms of the deal, Ocado has invested £10m in the business and will supply Oxbotica with data from its existing delivery vans and warehouse vehicles to help train and test its technologies.

Ocado will build a dedicated team of engineers within its existing Advanced Technology division to work with Oxbotica, first focusing on the UK and then internationally.

The two businesses began their history together in 2017 when Ocado trialled autonomous delivery vehicles using Oxbotica technology in Greenwich, London.

Ocado’s ambition for the partnership is to allow all those businesses that use its Smart Platform to reduce the costs of last-mile delivery and other logistics operations.

Ocado chief of advanced technology Alex Harvey said: “We are excited about the opportunity to work with Oxbotica to develop a wide range of autonomous solutions that truly have the potential to transform both our and our partners’ CFC and service delivery operations, while also giving all end customers the widest range of options and flexibility.”

Oxbotica co-founder and chief technology officer Paul Newman added: “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.” 

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