Self-driving vehicle delivery firm Udelv Inc. has signed a deal with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to use the startup’s autonomous cargo vans deliver goods in a pilot project.

The pilot program, which will be based in Surprise, Arizona, was announced today alongside Udelv’s unveiling of a redesigned delivery vehicle, the Newton, at the CES consumer electronics show in Las Vegas.

The Newton is notable because it uses the latest version 3.5 of Baidu Inc.’s Apollo open-source autonomous driving platform behind the wheel, the first time a vehicle will use the technology in a commercial service in the U.S.

On the delivery side, the Arizona pilot program, starting in February, will see Udelv’s autonomous cargo vans deliver fresh groceries, hand-picked by Walmart’s “personal shoppers” directly to customers.

“We’re still learning – it’s a pilot – but, we want to make sure we stay on the cutting edge of grocery delivery by exploring what’s new and next,” Walmart said in a statement.

Surprise will not be the only city where Udelv vehicles will be seen on roads this year. The company said it expects to have more than 100 vehicles deployed in 2019 for intermediate-distance and last-mile delivery on public roads in several cities.

Previous pilot projects deployed the company’s vehicles in Oklahoma City and parts of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Speaking to SiliconANGLE’s video unit theCUBE in April, Udelv Chief Executive Officer Daniel Laury said his company had developed an artificial intelligence stack with a scene estimator for maneuvering into parking spots and around parked cars, parking lots being an issue when it comes to autonomous vehicles.

“Udelv has mastered not only the technical obstacles of autonomous driving and parking but the softer skill of providing an excellent customer experience,” Laury explained in the interview. “The customer schedules delivery using Udelv’s app, and a push notification is sent when the vehicle is four minutes away. Tapping the app opens a secure locker on Udelv’s iconic orange delivery vehicle, and the customer takes the ordered item(s) out.”

Across the Pacific, Baidu’s partnership with Udelv is front and center in the announcement. The South China Morning Post reported that Apollo 3.5 is the first open-source autonomous driving platform that can perform in complex urban and suburban driving scenarios.

“Udelv’s next-generation autonomous delivery van is a prime example of Apollo accelerating innovation and utility in the autonomous driving industry,” Wang Jingao, senior director of Baidu and head of the Apollo project, told the Morning Post. “With continued development of our Apollo software platform, we are enabling companies, both large and small, to quickly develop their own autonomous driving systems.”

Here’s the interview with Laury from April:

Photo: Udelv