Driverless grocery delivery one step closer to reality, after new program by Gatik and Loblaws

Loblaws is partnering with an American autonomous vehicle company in what’s believed to be a Canadian first: taking grocery-delivery orders between various Loblaws facilities via self-driving trucks.

There is no human sitting in the driver’s seat of a half-dozen trucks adorned with PC Express branding, currently making their way around various Ontario roadways.

It’s the latest step in a pilot program launched in 2020 in which trucks operated by Palo Alto, Calif.,-based Gatik ferried various items between Loblaws distribution hubs and a half-dozen retail locations across the Greater Toronto Area.

Although the trucks drive themselves, at first, a safety driver sat behind the wheel.