Waymo
A Chrysler Pacifica minivan with Waymo's self-driving technology.
- Waymo, the Google self-driving car spin-off, will start shuttling packages for UPS in Arizona by the end of March.
- Autonomous Waymo vehicles will carry packages from UPS stores in the Phoenix area to the parcel-delivery company's hub in Tempe.
- Last year, UPS took a minority stake in the autonomous-truck startup TuSimple and it's embarking on a three-year, $20 billion spend on automation at its sorting facilities.
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Waymo, the Google self-driving car spin-off, will start delivering packages for UPS in Arizona this quarter, the companies announced on Wednesday.
Using Chrysler Pacifica minivans, Waymo will ferry packages from UPS stores in the Phoenix area to the parcel-delivery company's hub in Tempe. While the vehicles will drive without human assistance, each will include a Waymo employee who will monitor the vehicle's performance.
Waymo launched Waymo One, the first commercial autonomous ride-hailing service in the US, in parts of Arizona in 2018. Last year, the company began removing safety drivers from some of the vehicles used in the service. The company is now seen by many experts as the leader in the autonomous-vehicle industry.
Waymo is also testing self-driving vehicles, including semi trucks, in California, Michigan, Texas, Washington, and Georgia. The company last year ran a pilot with AutoNation to deliver vehicle parts.
UPS' partnership with Waymo is not the parcel-delivery company's first foray into self-driving vehicles, after the company took a minority stake in the autonomous-truck startup TuSimple last year. Since last summer, TuSimple has been moving UPS Freight loads in Arizona.
UPS is also investing $20 billion to automate its package-sorting facilities. While the move suggests that the iconic UPS delivery driver, not to mention other operations employees in the company's 500,000-odd workforce, might be endangered, UPS chief marketing officer Kevin Warren rejected that notion in an interview with Business Insider, saying technology will "augment our human capital."
Across all parcel movements in the US, companies like UPS and FedEx are on track to double the amount that they move in the next decade, said Scott Price, UPS's chief strategy and transformation officer. Those packages will be sorted and delivered by humans - and machines.
UPS will continue to hire workers for permanent and seasonal jobs, Price said. For the 2019 holiday season, the company hired 100,000 temporary workers. (And some of those seasonal workers end up staying around longer than you might think; CEO David Abney started at UPS as a seasonal package handler.)
Are you a current or former Waymo employee? Do you have an opinion about what it's like to work there? Contact this reporter at mmatousek@businessinsider.com. You can also reach out on Signal at 646-768-4712 or email this reporter's encrypted address at mmatousek@protonmail.com.
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