autoevolution
 

Self-Driving Hyundai Ioniq 5 Delivers Food With Uber Eats in California

Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 EV is not only a design awards winner and a favorite among EV enthusiasts; it has now become a food delivery car. That’s due to a partnership between Uber Eats and Motional to use self-driving Ioniq 5 vehicles to bring food to hungry people in Santa Monica, California.
Motional test autonomous deliveries 6 photos
Photo: Motional
Hyundai Ioniq 5 Motional RobotaxiHyundai Ioniq 5 Motional RobotaxiHyundai Ioniq 5 Motional RobotaxiHyundai Ioniq 5 Motional RobotaxiHyundai Ioniq 5 Motional Robotaxi
Motional and Uber have decided to combine their technologies and announced the launch of an autonomous pilot program for end-to-end food deliveries near its office in Santa Monica. This will definitely gain the Hyundai EV more fans.

This is Uber Eats' first collaboration with a self-driving vehicle company and also the first time when Motional’s fleet is being used to transport commercial goods, so the Ioniq 5 EVs that will do the job have been modified to better adapt to autonomous deliveries.

As this is still a pilot program, Uber and Motional have the opportunity to see how their respective technologies integrate and see how customers interact with self-driving vehicles to determine if additional autonomy features need to be incorporated.

The companies have done extensive testing in the Los Angeles area for the pilot and plan to gather customer feedback to then create an autonomous food delivery model that would be scaled to more areas outside Los Angeles.

“Autonomous delivery signifies the next phase of Motional’s commercial roadmap,” Motional COO Abe Ghabra stated. “This service will provide the learnings and experience needed to make Motional the trusted AV provider for on-demand delivery networks. We’re proud to partner with Uber on this important milestone and begin introducing Uber Eats customers to autonomous technology.”

Curious how the service works? Allow me to enlighten you: marketers who receive Uber Eats orders will be notified when the autonomous Ioniq 5 is at the set pick-up location and they will place the customer’s order in a specially-designed compartment of the EV. The client will also receive a notification when the delivery arrives and they will be able to unlock the vehicle via the Uber Eats app and collect their order. Child’s play, right?
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Ancuta Iosub
Ancuta Iosub profile photo

After spending a few years as a copy editor, Ancuta decided to put down the eraser and pick up the writer's pencil. Her favorites subjects are unusual car designs, travel trailers and everything related to the great outdoors.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories