Speaking at the NRF Big Show in New York yesterday, Ocado chief executive Tim Steiner said his future vision for the business hinged on what he called his “far-out” research and development team, which is looking at driverless delivery vehicles and robots to carry the groceries from those vehicles to the customer.

“We’re obviously innovating all the time. We’re working on really far-out research and development technology and how we can leverage those for our clients,” he said.

“Things like driverless vehicles, for example. What jumps out of that vehicle with the groceries and gives them to the customer? We’ve got people playing in that space.”