[msb-alumni] CVS Health tests self-driving vehicle prescription delivery
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 29 May 2020 14:53:06 -0400
BlankCVS Health tests self-driving vehicle prescription delivery.
CVS Health will try delivering prescriptions with self-driving vehicles in a
test
that begins next month. The drugstore chain said Thursday that it will partner
with
the Silicon Valley robotics company Nuro to deliver medicines and other
products to
customers near a Houston-area store.
A CVS spokesman said the prescriptions will routinely be delivered within an
hour of
being ordered. Customers will have to confirm their identity in order to unlock
their
delivery after the vehicle arrives. Nuro has previously started partnerships to
test
the delivery of pizzas for Domino's or groceries for Kroger, also in the
Houston
area. This is the company's first venture into health care. Drugstores like CVS
and
rival Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. have been expanding home and office
delivery
services for a few years now to polish their reputations for convenience as
online
retail giant Amazon expands its influence. Last September, Walgreens started
testing
drones capable of delivering some products five or 10 minutes after being
ordered.
But that test in Christiansburg, Virginia, did not include prescriptions. Using
unmanned vehicles to deliver potentially sensitive prescriptions is uncharted
territory. Some hospitals in North Carolina have been testing drone delivery of
medical samples and supplies. CVS and UPS tried drone prescription deliveries
last
fall in Cary, North Carolina. The companies started offering the service
earlier this
month to a big retirement community in Florida. Woonsocket, Rhode Island-based
CVS
Health Corp. said that for the Houston test, customers can chose the Nuro
delivery
option when they fill their prescriptions online. They can then track the
vehicle's
progress online through a Nuro portal. Earlier this year, federal regulators
gave
Nuro temporary approval to run autonomous delivery vehicles on public roads for
the
first time without human occupants.
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