IRVING, Texas — 7‑Eleven Inc. is bringing autonomous delivery with Nuro, a robotics company, to Mountain View, Calif.
- 7-Eleven is No. 1 on CSP’s 2021 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count.
In collaboration with Nuro, 7‑Eleven is launching autonomous commercial delivery in California, enabling its customers in the service area to order through the 7Now delivery app to have their products delivered via bot.
“7‑Eleven has owned and defined convenience since 1927,” said Raghu Mahadevan chief digital officer for 7‑Eleven. “Our first foray into autonomous delivery was in 2016 when 7‑Eleven became the first retailer in the U.S. to make a drone delivery to a customer’s house. Since then, we haven’t stopped looking for ways to redefine convenience for our customers inside and outside the four walls of our stores. Fast forward to 2021, and we are pushing the boundaries of innovation even further to provide customers with the first commercial autonomous delivery service in California. I can’t wait to see where we go from here.”
To get started, customers download the 7Now delivery app, then browse the app to purchase items including pizza, chips, beverages, household items and more. Customers can then add items to their shopping cart, begin the checkout process, and choose autonomous delivery. Autonomous vehicle deliveries are available daily from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. PT at no additional charge for customers in Mountain View, Calif.
The 7Now delivery app will send updates as the order is processed, and orders will arrive in approximately 30 minutes. Finally, customers meet the autonomous vehicle outside, grab their items from the back of the vehicle and enjoy.
Nuro will begin this delivery service with its autonomous Priuses and later introduce R2 bots, the company’s autonomous robots that are custom-built to transport products and goods without any occupants in the vehicle. Nuro became the first autonomous vehicle company to receive a deployment permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles in December 2020, enabling the launch of this inaugural commercial delivery service in the state in collaboration with 7‑Eleven.
“Residents in the state of California—a major hub of innovation—have never been able to experience the commercial delivery of goods by an autonomous vehicle. Nuro is teaming up with 7‑Eleven to change that,” said Jiajun Zhu, CEO and co-founder of Nuro. “We’ve always wanted to bring Nuro’s autonomous delivery to our local community and to our neighbors. We couldn’t be more excited to do this with an iconic neighborhood store like 7‑Eleven in our hometown, Mountain View.”
Introduced in late 2017, 7Now Delivery is available throughout the United States and offers real-time tracking that lets customers know when to expect their orders, typically in 30 minutes.
Based in Irving, Texas, 7-Eleven operates, franchises or licenses more than 77,000 stores in 18 countries and regions, including approximately 9,500 in the United States under the 7-Eleven banner and approximately 3,800 under the Speedway banner.
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