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Walmart partners with Ford Motor to test home delivery in Miami

Walmart is working to compete with Amazon, which is aggressively stepping up its delivery services and has included talk of possible drone use.
Credit: Ford Motor Co.
Ford partners with Walmart on a pilot project for home delivery.

Ford Motor Co. is partnering with Walmart to test home delivery services in early 2019, an effort to learn consumer expectations that will shape development of new driverless vehicle technology, the Dearborn-based automaker announced Wednesday.

While the initial partnership between the two retail giants is underway now, actual delivery of Walmart customer goods in Florida's Miami-Dade County won't begin until next year.

Ford plans to use drivers to deliver purchased goods to Walmart shoppers who will have no interaction with the drivers. The customer experiences — designed to mimic driverless delivery — will provide Ford a better understanding of what customers want as Ford technology teams develop robot cars to eventually deliver goods.

"When you order online or with the Walmart app, it will thank you for your order and ask if you would be interested in participating in the project," explained Alan Hall, communications manager for Ford AV LLC. "These are random customers helping us develop our autonomous pilot project."

Meanwhile, Walmart is working to compete with Amazon, which is aggressively stepping up its delivery services and has included talk of possible drone use.

Walmart posted on its corporate website, "For a Walmart customer who has just started using Grocery Pickup, it might seem like shopping can’t get much easier — just order online, pull up to a parking space, and wait for an associate to load the items. Easy. Retail is changing at a rapid pace, and what’s 'easy' in 2018 might feel old-fashioned in 2028. In fact, Walmart is already offering grocery delivery in nearly 100 metro areas and is continuing to innovate to find new ways to serve customers."

This unique partnership with Ford "to explore delivery with autonomous vehicle technology" allows Walmart to "stay on the cutting edge of grocery delivery."

While Walmart has made no commitment with Ford long term, the alliance is significant.

Ivan Drury, senior analyst at Edmunds, said, "Joining forces with Walmart automatically taps a huge pool of customers and will help provide all sorts of scenarios for testing."

Stephanie Brinley, principal analyst at IHS Markit, agreed.

"Ford is already looking at how people interact with autonomous delivery vehicles. This is an expansion of a program already started there, but it applies to a different type of delivery. Hopefully, in doing testing, they can find where opportunities and challenges might be. For Walmart, it's kind of a no-brainer," she said.

Brinley added, "Walmart needs to look at changes in consumer expectations. They need to understand just as much as the automaker needs to understand."

Walmart said in its post, "Before self-driving cars can go mainstream, we must get a better sense of how people want to interact with them. Together, we will gather crucial data to learn the best way to bring items to customers. There’s no telling what innovation the future will bring, but Walmart is committed to staying on the forefront of change to make getting groceries simple, quick and easy."

Ford is collaborating with various local and national companies to transport flowers, tacos, dry cleaning, and other items, said Brian Wolf, director of business development for Ford AV LLC.

"Now, it’s time to explore how grocery delivery can help expand access to fresh food and other retail items for people all over the country," he said.

The announcement comes on the day of a Ford media presentation in Miami. Ford hosts investors the next two days.

Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: phoward@freepress.com or 313-222-6512. Follow her on Twitter @phoebesaid

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