Sam's Club to get 24/7 deliveries from fleet of self-driving trucks in Texas
Gatik's autonomous trucks are 'purpose built for urban, semi-urban, and highway environments'
Gatik CEO and co-founder Gautam Narang shares company’s success as he announces partnership with Georgia-Pacific, unveils details about company business model and its groundbreaking vehicles.
A network of nearly three dozen Sam's Clubs in the Dallas area will start getting deliveries from self-driving trucks 24 hours a day, seven days a week, autonomous technology startup Gatik announced Tuesday.
"By replacing traditional tractor trailers with autonomous box trucks, our solution will establish a more responsive and flexible logistics network, increasing the cadence of delivery runs and the flow of goods, while reducing logistics costs and enabling near real-time inventory fulfillment," Gatik wrote in a blog post.
The fleet of autonomous trucks will deliver Georgia-Pacific goods such as paper towels, napkins, and tableware along "known, repeatable routes," using technology that is "purpose built for urban, semi-urban, and highway environments," the company said.
One of Gatik's self-driving trucks sits outside a Sam's Club.
Sam's Club's parent company, Walmart, has already started using Gatik's autonomous trucks to make deliveries between fulfillment centers and a Neighborhood Market retail store in Bentonville, Arkansas.
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Walmart isn't the only retailer to adopt autonomous technology, as Kroger partnered with Nuro to deliver fresh groceries with the company's completely electric self-driving vehicles.
A Walmart Associate unloads goods from a Gatik truck outside Walmart's Neighborhood Market in Bentonville, Arkansas. (Walmart/Gatick / Fox News)
Uber and Alphabet's Waymo, two tech giants that once battled in court over autonomous technology, also announced a partnership this week to "deploy autonomous trucks at scale on the Uber Freight network."
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"Both companies envision a future where autonomous trucks tackle the long-haul portion of driving, easing some of the burden of the increasing demand for freight while also enabling drivers to shift into short-haul jobs that enhance the occupation’s quality of life," Uber wrote Tuesday.