Grocery retailer Kroger and autonomous vehicle company Nuro have extended their collaboration with the introduction of the latter’s third-generation autonomous vehicle to Kroger’s digital grocery offerings in Houston, Texas.
Leveraging Nuro’s third-generation vehicles, Kroger intends to grow its flexibility of order sizes without compromising on freshness or value. The all-electric, autonomous vehicles also support Kroger’s Zero Hunger, Zero Waste social and environmental impact plan, its commitment to help build communities free of hunger and waste. The adoption of all-electric vehicles aligns with the company’s commitment to reduce its corporate greenhouse gas emissions and also enables customers to choose delivery options that help them reduce their climate impacts. In 2018, grocery retailer Kroger and autonomous vehicle company Nuro first partnered to deliver fresh groceries with all-electric, autonomous vehicles.
Yael Cosset, Kroger’s senior vice president and chief information officer, said, “Our expanded collaboration with Nuro supports Kroger’s commitment to provide fresh food, at a great value – all without asking our customers to compromise. The role of autonomous vehicles in our seamless ecosystem continues to increase, contributing to meeting our customers in the context of their day without compromising on the quality or value, while contributing to our long-term growth and sustainability goals.”
Dave Ferguson, co-founder and president of Nuro, said, “We are thrilled to expand our longstanding strategic partnership with Kroger and further our shared vision for the future of goods delivery. We look forward to leveraging our third-generation, and most advanced, autonomous vehicle to date to continue to build on the success of this program.”
Laura Gump, president of Kroger’s Houston division, said, “We are excited to expand our collaboration with Nuro here in Houston, one of the largest cities in the USA. Our associates, customers and city embrace innovation and we are thrilled to be able to soon provide this enterprising grocery delivery service to even more shoppers across the region.”
