As a delivery and logistics company, UPS has been rather aggressive in finding new high-tech ways of staying ahead of the competition. The company has explored the possibility of using drones to help make deliveries, and now it seems that they are looking at the possibility of self-driving delivery vans.This is done by teaming up with Alphabet’s Waymo, which for those unfamiliar, has been looking to develop self-driving technologies. These self-driving vans will not be used to make the actual deliveries, but rather they will be used to shuttle packages collected at various UPS Store locations to a local UPS sorting facility where they will be processed.
According to Scott Price, UPS chief strategy and transformation officer, “UPS and Waymo are exploring automated and autonomous technologies to enhance network operations. Getting packages to our sortation facilities sooner and more frequently, while also creating an opportunity for later drop-offs for next-day service, can add enormous value for our customers.”
UPS is definitely not the first company to explore new ways of making deliveries. For example, back in 2019, Domino’s teamed up with Nuro to test self-driving robots that can deliver pizzas to customers. Companies like 7-Eleven have also explored the idea of using drones to make deliveries of purchases directly to customers.
Filed in . Read more about Self-Driving Cars, Ups and Waymo. Source: pressroom.ups