7-Eleven and Nuro Launch First Commercial Autonomous Delivery Service in California.
IRVING, Texas, Dec. 1, 2021- 7-Eleven, Inc. is experimenting with autonomous delivery with Nuro, a robotics firm that is revolutionizing local commerce with autonomous trucks, to bring a futuristic innovation to Mountain View, CA, customers. 7-Eleven is partnering with Nuro to introduce California’s first autonomous commercial delivery, allowing consumers in the service region to place orders using the 7NOW® delivery app and have their products delivered by bot.
“7-Eleven has owned and defined convenience since 1927,” said Raghu Mahadevan, 7-Eleven Chief Digital Officer. “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.”
Here’s how it works:
- Get Started: Download the 7NOW delivery app through Google Play, the Apple App Store or visit 7NOW.com.
- Order: Browse the app to purchase favorites like pizza, chips, beverages, household items and more. Add items to your shopping cart, begin the checkout process, and choose autonomous delivery. Autonomous vehicle deliveries are available daily from 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. PT at no additional charge for customers in Mountain View, CA.
- Enjoy: The 7NOW delivery app will send updates as the order is processed, and orders will arrive in approximately 30 minutes. Simply meet the autonomous vehicle outside, grab your items from the back of the vehicle and enjoy.
Nuro will launch this delivery service with its self-driving Priuses, followed by R2 bots, the company’s self-driving robots that are custom-built to move things and materials without any human occupants. In December 2020, Nuro became the first autonomous vehicle firm to get a deployment permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, paving the way for the launch of the state’s first commercial delivery service in conjunction 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, Nuro CEO and Co-Founder. “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.”
7NOW® Delivery, which debuted in late 2017, is a real-time tracking service that helps consumers know when to anticipate their items, which are normally delivered within 30 minutes. The 7NOW app is available for download on the App Store and Google Play, as well as at 7NOW.com.