Walmart Self-Driving Delivery to Expand in Arizona

More Walmart shoppers in Arizona will soon have a chance to try out driverless delivery from the retailer, according to one of Walmart's partners on self-driving tech.

In a tweet April 12, San Francisco-based Cruise said that self-driving delivery is coming soon to Walmart stores in Chandler, Ariz., after Cruise kicked off driverless delivery with Walmart in Scottsdale in early 2021. Per Walmart's website, the retailer operates four Supercenters and a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Chandler.

Last April, Walmart announced that it was investing in Cruise, with the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer finding appeal in Cruise's "differentiated business model, unique technology and unmatched driverless testing," Walmart U.S. President and CEO John Furner said at the time. The size of the investment was undisclosed; Furner wrote in a corporate blog post that the capital injection would "aid our work toward developing a last-mile delivery ecosystem that’s fast, low-cost and scalable."

Cruise vehicles run on a GM-made electric platform and currently carry up to two orders at once, Cruise's website states, with a divider separating the orders. Deliveries through Walmart are available 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Beyond Cruise, Walmart also has partnered on driverless delivery with Pittsburgh-based Argo AI. In September, Walmart said that it would begin delivering online orders using Ford Motor Co. self-driving test vehicles running Argo AI tech in Austin, Texas; Miami; and Washington, D.C.