Driverless delivery pods will be on Britain’s roads within two years, with Wilko as their unlikely champion.
The hardware and homeware chain will today announce a £3m investment in battery-powered autonomous vehicles that will deliver goods directly to its customers within a six-mile radius of stores.
The pods will be created from the chassis of a Renault Twizy, a small two-seat electric car, which will be repurposed as a driverless delivery vehicle. Each one will contain about six lockers which customers will access using a smartphone when it arrives outside their property.
StreetDrone, which is developing the vehicles, said they could be deployed by the end of 2023.
The move will position Wilko, which has more than 400 stores and a home shopping business, in pole position for the driverless delivery revolution, potentially overtaking Amazon and Ocado.
