Trucking along

WALMART has been in the headlines a lot this year for experimenting with robots, and now it’s expanding those trial runs. These aren’t robots that stock shelves or drones that deliver packages. The nation’s largest private retailer is thinking a little bigger.

The Bentonville retail giant is going to let self-driving trucks loose here in Arkansas. Technology news outlet The Verge has more:

“Walmart will use fully autonomous box trucks to make deliveries in Arkansas starting in 2021. The big-box retailer has been working with a startup called Gatik on a delivery pilot for 18 months. Next year, the two companies plan on taking their partnership to the next level by removing the safety driver from their autonomous box trucks.”

No safety driver? Robots in control of the vehicle? Suddenly we’re having flashbacks of “Terminator 2.” Hopefully things won’t head that way.

It’s interesting to see Walmart expanding its driverless delivery program here in the Natural State, given how other companies like Uber seem to be moving away from driverless vehicles.

That’s not to say there’s a lack of potential. If computers are smart enough to operate a vehicle on their own, that might reduce crashes and road fatalities. Computers don’t get drowsy from driving long hours. And they can’t become inebriated. Two big checks in the advantage column.

Apparently the trucks have already been operating on a small patch of road in Bentonville for a while now.

“Since last year, those trucks have been operating on a two-mile route between a ‘dark store’ (a store that stocks items for fulfillment but isn’t open to the public) and a nearby Neighborhood Market in Bentonville, Ark. Since then, the vehicles have racked up 70,000 miles in autonomous mode with a safety driver,” The Verge reported.

It sounds like Walmart has a solid idea on its hands. And Gatik isn’t the only company Walmart is working with on self-driving operations.

There’s a slew of others, including Ford and Postmates.

A question, though: If you find yourself driving next to one of these trucks, and you make the universal sign to blow the horn among big trucks, will the robots oblige?