Ocado Group PLC to pump £10mln into self-driving vehicle specialist Oxbotica

(LON:PLC) is to invest £10mln in Oxbotica and work with the Oxford-based company on hardware and software interfaces for autonomous vehicles.

Ocado, which started collaborating with Oxbotica in 2017, said the latest collaboration agreement will be a multi-year affair aimed at enabling Ocado’s partners who use the Ocado Smart Platform to reduce the costs of “last-mile delivery” and other logistics operations.

Oxbotica’s products use an advanced set of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and optimisation technologies.

Ocado will build teams of engineers within its existing Advanced Technology division to work with Oxbotica. The initial development work will focus on UK operations, and will then extend to international markets where Ocado’s partners operate.

Beyond potential cost savings within its core operations, Ocado believes this initiative will generate significant opportunities to improve its partners’ customer service.

“This is an excellent opportunity for Oxbotica and Ocado to strengthen our partnership, sharing our vision for the future of autonomy. By combining both companies’ cutting-edge knowledge and resources, we hope to bring our Universal Autonomy vision to life and continue to solve some of the world’s most complex autonomy challenges,” said Paul Newman, the co-founder and chief technology officer of Oxbotica.