Will COVID-19 Accelerate the Adoption of Autonomous Vehicles?

Autonomous vehicles are playing a crucial role during COVID-19 to address the demand for contactless deliveries and driverless operations.
Autonomous vehicle companies are sensing an opportunity, and are playing a crucial role in the fight against the pandemic – transporting medical supplies, groceries, and food in infected areas. The areas that driverless vehicles have made the most impact are:

Healthcare 

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) can help alleviate the strain on existing healthcare resources that are already stretched thin while reducing the risk of exposure to the staff. 

• Apollo, Baidu’s autonomous vehicle platform, partnered with iDriverPlus to provided driverless vehicles across cities in China to help with cleaning and disinfecting
• The Mayo Clinic in Florida in partnership with Beep, an autonomous shuttle service provider and the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) is using Navya shuttles to transport COVID-19 tests and medical supplies from the testing site to the processing laboratory
• Nuro R2 driverless vehicles are delivering medical supplies to COVID-19 hospital in Sacramento and a medical facility in San Mateo County

Contactless Deliveries

Contactless deliveries are most challenging for e-commerce and local grocery deliveries. A few use cases are emerging where companies are using autonomous vehicles to make contactless deliveries:

• E-commerce platform Yamibuy is using the services of autonomous startup Pony.ai, to deliver groceries in Irvine, California
• Autonomous startup Nuro R2 in partnership with Walmart to deliver groceries in Arizona and Texas
• Nuro is partnering with Kroger for food and drinks delivery
• Baidu’s Apollo partnered with Neolix, a self-driving startup, to daily deliver food supplies for frontline staff members in hospitals in China
• General Motors self-driving vehicle Cruise has been delivering food to seniors in San Francisco
• Boston-based Optimus Ride is delivering food and Amazon packages to residents of Paradise Valley Estates

 Logistics and Supply Chain

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) can greatly impact the supply chain through a reduction in transport time, faster deliveries, and safety, without the need for long-distance truck drivers. Some early adoptions in the logistics space include: 

• Self-driving truck company TuSimple is running its semis around the clock across the Southwest, hauling much-needed freight, mail, and food amid a worsening health crisis
• Waymo is delivering parcels for UPS using its self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans in Phoenix 

Conclusion 

In the near future, we expect many more businesses and sectors to adopt autonomous vehicles to navigate the pandemic times.