Ocado Shows Off Driver-less Vehicle

The British online supermarket Ocado has shown off a prototype driverless van designed to deliver goods at short distances. The vehicle spent two weeks completing autonomous loops of a two-mile (3km) semi-pedestrianised area of Greenwich, south-east London.

The electric CargoPod has a top speed of 25mph and can do 18 miles on a single battery charge. It can carry only eight crates and is not big enough to deliver large orders.

The trial was part of a broader £8m research project into driverless technology, using the Greenwich area as a test location. For the purposes of the test, the van's speed was capped at 5mph and two people were inside for safety reasons.

In order to complete the delivery, when it came to a stop one of the numbered crate doors would light up to indicate where the goods were stored. The door would then open when the recipient pressed a button.

The Chief executive of the company developing the vehicle, Oxbotica, said "we have chosen it to work specifically in this type of environment, where bigger vehicles are not allowed”. He added "this is not about trying to solve all the delivery problems in the world.”