In a first for Europe, Carrefour will deliver groceries with fully-autonomous robots in the coastal Flemish city of Knokke-Heist, De Tijd reports. Three robots will make the deliveries within a 400-metre radius.
A pop-up location on Lichttorenplein is the first in Europe to offer fully autonomous Carrefour deliveries by AI-powered robots. A similar trial project was launched in Zaventem in January, but this is the first time that the robots have been allowed to roll onto public roads.
To provide the novel service Carrefour has paired up with Turkish start-up Delivers.ai. The company has launched similar delivery services on behalf of other brands in Dubai, Madrid, and Istanbul and claims to offer CO2-neutral delivery.
Other companies offer robot grocery deliveries in the US. For example, robots by San Francisco-based company Starship have already completed around 5 million autonomous deliveries.
Future is now
In Knokke-Heist, customers place orders with Carrefour via the Deliveroo app. Then, employees at the small Carrefour location load goods into the robot, which promptly sets off driving along the pavements towards the customer. Carrefour claims to deliver within 15 minutes within its area of operation.
The robot is 100% autonomous and will be able to deliver groceries from the shops to your home. Credit: Belga/ Eric Lalmand
The small delivery robot uses eight cameras to safely navigate the streets and avoid accidents, paying special attention to road users and pedestrians. These small robots can use road crossings and cannot be opened by anyone except the person who made the order. When at its destination, customers scan a QR code and the compartment opens.
The three robots, named Natacha, Nono, and Loulou, have already begun serving customers on the Flemish coast. For the first few orders, Carrefour employees followed the robots to ensure that they did not get into any trouble. The service is offered at no additional charge to customers, however the offering of products is significantly reduced.
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These delivery robots will work in Knokke-Heist until 15 August. The delivery service should eventually be rolled out in other Belgian locations. Carrefour says that it is looking to deploy the robots in other small and medium-sized towns where there is no existing home delivery service.
To learn more about the service, Carrefour welcomes guests to its pop-up location on Lichttorenplein. Employees will explain how to use the service and are offering free coffee and pizza.
