"With the help of Gatik, we’re making sure we stay on the cutting edge of grocery pickup by testing an autonomous vehicle to move customer orders on a two-mile route in Bentonville between two of our stores," said Tom Ward, senior VP of digital operations, Walmart US, in a corporate blog post. "We aim to learn more about the logistics of adding autonomous vehicles into our online grocery ecosystem, operation process changes and more opportunities to incorporate this emerging technology.

“We’re always out to help our customers, and that means helping them save time and money," he said. "So, we’re using our position of strength to reinvent the shopping experience to take us, and busy families, well into the future."