Watch: Asda trials driverless deliveries in London

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Asda has today launched what it says will be Britain’s biggest autonomous grocery home delivery trial.

Asda shoppers in London could have their shopping delivered by driverless cars.

As reported by The Times, the supermarket is working with self-driving car AI developer Wayve on a year-long trial that will see Asda vans swapped for driverless Jaguar I-Pace electric cars to deliver shopping from Asda Park Royal in west London.

Shoppers based in the catchment area, covering more than 170,000 residents and 72,000 households around its Park Royal store, will place their delivery online as usual but may be randomly selected to have their order delivered by a self-driving vehicle.

A Wayve safety driver and an Asda colleague will accompany the deliveries, with an Asda colleague unloading the groceries to customers’ homes.

The one-year trial is part of a wider two-year partnership between Asda and Wayve. The vehicles use machine learning to drive in any environment and are “designed to constantly monitor the road, identifying potential hazards and making the safest decisions possible”, according to Wayve.

Simon Gregg, vice-president of ecommerce at Asda, said: “We believe autonomous technology is an exciting opportunity to shape the future of delivery, not only at our Park Royal store but throughout our operation.”

Park Royal is the first test location for the supermarket, but it confirmed Wayve could offer the service in further locations if Asda found the trial to be a success.