Ocado, that develops software, robotics, and automation systems for online retailers has invested £10 million in Oxbotica, an autonomous vehicle software company.
The company Ocadoa, leading UK-based online grocery platform and solutions provider announced the partnership with the Oxford-based startup Oxbotica to develop a range of autonomous vehicles.
Ocado is treating this as a strategic investment to develop AI-powered, self-driving systems that will work across its operations,
Ranging from vehicles within and around its packing warehouses through to the last-mile vehicles that deliver grocery orders to people’s homes.
The technology company says it expects the first products to come out of this deal most likely in closed environments like warehouses rather the less structured prospect of open streets to be online in two years.
As part of this collaboration, Ocado will outfit a subset of its delivery vans and warehouse vehicles with data capture capabilities, which may include video cameras, LiDAR, radar and other sensing devices.
The chief of advanced technology at Ocado, Alex Harvey, said:
“We are not constraining ourselves to work in any one use case,” in an interview. But to roll out autonomous systems everywhere, he added,”
“we realise there are areas where we will need regulatory compliance,” among other factors. The deal is nonexclusive, and both can work with other partners if they choose, the companies confirmed.
The software company, Oxbotica was founded in 2014 by Oxford professors, Paul Newman and Ingmar Posner. Since then, the company has grown from a start-up through to one of the world’s leading autonomous driving software companies.
They build software for real-world application, drawing on principles of physics, robotics, maths, AI and a dedicated team to perfect our technology.
The autonomous vehicle software is deployed across multiple sectors, bringing the benefits of autonomy to businesses globally.
One of the Company’s motive is to build an eco-system that supports the adoption of autonomous vehicles, building partnerships to accelerate the deployment of Universal Autonomy.
