Farmstead to be first grocer to deliver groceries via autonomous vans

Farmstead, San Francisco, announced a partnership with Udelv, Burlingame, Calif., making it what is said to be one of the first grocers in the country to make deliveries using autonomous delivery vehicles.

Farmstead began a pilot with Udelv, a manufacturer of autonomous delivery vans (ADV), in September, testing the customer experience of delivering via self-driving vans on select routes in the Bay Area.

“While many services have talked about making deliveries via autonomous vehicles, Farmstead is actually doing it,” says Pradeep Elankumaran, co-founder and CEO of Farmstead. “We envision a future where autonomous delivery is the norm in our space rather than the exception. This technology will help us be more efficient, enabling us to get fresh groceries into our customers’ homes even faster and cheaper than before. Customers who have already experienced our autonomous vehicle delivery have been blown away with Udelv’s help; we can’t wait to bring it to all our service areas.”

“Farmstead moved quickly to take advantage of the benefits of autonomous vehicle delivery. We were able to get our pilot up and running in just a few weeks. We’re really excited to be working with such an innovative partner, as we think grocery delivery is a perfect use case for Udelv’s self-driving vans, getting fresh and sometimes delicate items to customers quickly,” adds Daniel Laury, chief executive officer of Udelv.