Asda is to start delivering groceries to customers using self-driving vehicles in a new year-long trial.

Wayve’s self-driving vehicles are able to drive themselves to customers’ homes for deliveries

It’s deployed self-driving vehicles from Wayve to join its existing online delivery operation at the Park Royal superstore in West London, paving the way autonomous deliveries across the UK.

The scheme covers a catchment area of 72,000 households in London, making it the largest trial in the UK, according to the firms, and could be rolled out to other stores if successful.

The project will explore integrating Wayve’s automated driving technology into Asda’s daily operations.

Customers will be randomly selected to have their groceries delivered in self-driving vehicles, which are able to drive themselves to customers’ homes but will have a supervising Wayve safety driver onboard. An Asda delivery worker will also be in the vehicle to unload the groceries at the customer’s home.

It’s said to be the first trial in the UK that can launch directly into commercial operations, without diverging from the operation of the store’s online delivery processes.

Wayve’s ‘AV2.0’ solution uses machine learning to train its AI software to learn from experience how to drive in any environment, including identifying potential hazards and making decisions on the safest options. Unlike other self-driving technology, it means the vehicle isn’t geo-fenced by highly detailed maps or pre-defined routes and can autonomously drive anywhere in its urban domain, even to places it’s never been to before – which means the technology can be used to make deliveries to customers from day one of the trial.

The launch follows a two-year partnership between the retail giant and autonomous vehicle technology start-up that aims to lead the way on developing a self-driving vehicle solution for the grocery market.

Asda’s vice president of eCommerce, Simon Gregg said: “Asda has long understood the value of bringing tech innovation to the online grocery sector and we are always looking at new and innovative partnerships to improve delivery options for customers. We believe autonomous technology is an exciting opportunity to shape the future of delivery, not only at our Park Royal store but throughout our nationwide operation.”

Alex Kendall, co-founder and CEO at Wayve, commented: “We value our work with Asda to build the foundations of future autonomous grocery delivery. Trials like this one accelerate our road to deployment. They provide the learnings required to bring the benefits of AV technology to customers sooner while ensuring that businesses, such as Asda, are prepared to deploy AVs at scale.”