The next new technology to hit the streets; self-driving grocery stores. Fresh Truck is excited to be announcing a partnership with Tesla, American electric vehicle manufacturer, and pioneer in autonomous vehicle technology. “I have a big vision for school bus based mobile produce vendors,” said Tesla CEO Elon Musk in his latest announcement for his 10-year plan to reshape transportation around the world. This move may have seemed out of the blue for some wall street analysts but should come as no surprise given Musk’s strict vegetarian diet and commitment to getting his five a day of greens.
This partnership marks a big shift in Fresh Truck’s development. “When Tesla approached us with this opportunity for partnership it was clear they share our commitment to radically rethinking mobile markets,” said Fresh Truck Executive Director Josh Trautwein, “through this synergistic partnership, we will be able to leverage our core competency in mobile produce retail with Tesla’s world-changing technology.” The new truck is currently being tested in Palo Alto, California at Tesla headquarters. We expect to have a model to test here in Boston within 18-months, though it’s unclear if Boston winters will pose a challenge.
We are also thinking hard about how the addition of an autonomous bus to our fleet will change our daily operations. “Self-driving mobile markets will have a dramatic impact on our bottom line,” says COO Sunny Chen, “we anticipate a 30% time savings for our drivers. They will have additional time to do mission critical tasks like making sure the carrots are all facing the same direction in the baskets.”
Keep an eye out for additional updates on the progress of the project and don’t be surprised when you see your veggies driving themselves down the street next year.