Motional and Uber Announce Partnership for Autonomous Deliveries
Motional, a global leader in driverless technology, and Uber Technologies have announced a partnership to launch autonomous deliveries for Uber customers, starting in Santa Monica in early 2022.
Motional's fully electric vehicles will deliver carefully selected meal kits from featured restaurants on Uber Eats. The partnership marks a pioneering step for both companies: an expansion of Motional's driverless delivery efforts and Uber's first road freight partnership with an autonomous vehicle (AV) technology provider.
Motional will use its next-generation autonomous vehicle, a fully electric robotaxi based on the Hyundai IONIQ 5 with modifications for autonomous operation. This will be the first time Motional SAE Level 4 vehicles are used for delivery applications, signaling the company's shift to a dual-use product strategy.
Motional has not told Uber how many vehicles it plans to put on the streets of Santa Monica, but said a human safety operator will be present during trips. Only a handful of AV companies hold permits to test in California without a human safety operator, including Cruise, Nuro, Waymo, Weride and Zoox, and of these, only Cruise, Waymo and Nuro can use AVs commercially.
Motional's Vice President of Technology Strategy, Eric Nice, told TechCrunch: "We expect our delivery service to eventually become as ubiquitous as it is today."
“Today Motional is entering the autonomous delivery market. We are proud that Uber is our first delivery partner, and we aim to use our reliable driverless technology to offer efficient and convenient deliveries to customers in California. We are confident this will be a successful collaboration with Uber, and we see many long-term opportunities to further deploy Motional technology on the Uber platform”
Motional is at the forefront of the autonomous vehicle industry and is one of the world's leading companies in commercial robotaxi services. The company stands out for its advanced driverless technology, exceptional safety record and outstanding customer service.
The Motional partnership with Uber will leverage the company's expertise in operating commercial autonomous fleets and integrating its technology into on-demand consumer applications.
“We are pleased to work with Motional to test a new kind of delivery for Uber Eats consumers in 2022. Our consumers and merchant partners expect convenience, reliability and innovation from Uber, and this collaboration is a great opportunity to meet and exceed those expectations”
Uber Eats provides instant access to local commerce, helping people around the world find restaurants and merchants, order food, groceries, alcohol and much more with a tap, and get fast and reliable delivery. The company uses Uber's technology and logistics expertise to work with 780,000 merchants in more than 6,000 cities worldwide, with an average delivery time of under 30 minutes.
Motional said it will work closely with Uber to determine what the user interface will look like for Uber Eats customers, but did not provide details.
“Motional applies a deep, research-based approach to user interface design. This work is already underway for delivery use cases. Our goal is to deliver a seamless and intuitive autonomous experience that addresses the needs of the end user and delights the delivery customer. We look forward to continuing to refine the experience as we learn more from the pilot”
The company will not disclose operational details of its vehicles in Santa Monica, such as exactly where it will conduct pilot operations, during which hours its cars will be on the road, or whether the AVs will operate in fog or rain.
“We are testing the Ioniq 5 robotaxi in a variety of road environments and conditions to ensure safe navigation in adverse conditions. We also recently expanded our test facility in Las Vegas, which will allow us to increase the volume of controlled closed-course tests (fourfold) and the complexity of scenarios, including more challenging urban conditions, variable lighting, including nighttime, and rain from light to heavy”
The partners see autonomous vehicles playing an important role in the on-demand delivery ecosystem, with AVs helping to expand access to convenient and affordable deliveries. Motional and Uber look forward to sharing more information about the service ahead of the 2022 launch.
Uber is not the first major ride-hailing company to partner with Motional. In November 2021, the AV startup shared plans with Lyft to launch a commercial driverless robotaxi service in Las Vegas by 2023.
Motional has historically had a greater presence in Nevada, where it has been conducting driverless tests since November 2020. This summer, Motional announced plans to expand its presence in California with a new manufacturing center in Los Angeles that will support public road testing, and this pilot with Uber carries those plans forward.
