UPS Partnering With Waymo And Reveals Plans To Buy 10,000 Electric Vans

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2020
  • UPS announced a partnership with Waymo and a plan to buy 10,000 electric delivery vans from UK-based Arrival

Delivery company UPS has made a couple of major announcements this week. This includes a pilot project that the company set up with Alphabet-owned autonomous vehicle company Waymo. And UPS also said it will be buying 10,000 electric delivery vans from UK-based Arrival.

Waymo Partnership

UPS is going to be using some of Waymo’s self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans for delivering packages between its stores in the metro Phoenix area and a company hub in Tempe, Arizona. These minivans will have safety drivers in the front seat for ensuring safety during the trial phase. The pilot will begin this quarter.

“We’ve built the Waymo Driver so that it can be deployed across a variety of vehicle platforms, as well as business applications that encompass not only transporting people, but also transporting goods. At Waymo, our mission is to make it safe and easy for people and things to get where they’re going so it’s important that we focus on creating a safer driving experience for all types of vehicles, including those that deliver goods to our homes and businesses each day. The Waymo Driver can power a range of use cases from ride-hailing to trucking and logistics, to delivery, to public transportation and even personal cars (down the road!),” said Waymo chief operating officer Tekedra N. Mawakana in a blog post.

10,000 Electric Vehicles

UPS also said it is going to buy 10,000 electric delivery vans from Arrival. Those vehicles will be added to the UPS fleet across North America and Europe in the next four years. Plus UPS’ venture capital arm is making an investment in Arrival.

Arrival recently emerged out of stealth mode. And the company revealed it raised $110 million in funding from Hyundai and Kia recently.

Drone Delivery Test

UPS also pointed out that it started testing drone delivery in San Diego. This is a follow-up to tests UPS has been running in North Carolina involving the delivery of lightweight packages such as medications.