Tina Bellon

(Reuters) – Motional (the self-driving joint venture between Hyundai Motor Co. and Aptiv) announced on Thursday that it would be entering the autonomous delivery marketplace by offering meal kits to some California Uber Technologies Inc customers (NYSE:)

Motional stated that it will start delivery of meals at select restaurants via Uber’s food delivery service Eats Santa Monica by early 2022.

Both companies didn’t say if the partnership would extend to other places. Motional Chief Executive Karl Iagnemma stated that the joint venture was seeing many long-term possibilities for further deployment of Motional’s technology on the Uber platform.

Delivery will be in Hyundai’s fully electric IONIQ-5 vehicle, that can operate independently. The spokesperson stated that a safety driver would be in the cars.

When asked if Uber Eats customers will need to go to their vehicles in order to take orders for meals, the spokesperson stated that they would provide more information about the service before it launches.

Motional’s shift to food delivery is part of a trend by companies within the self-driving technology industry, which aims to go beyond their initial ambition to provide a service for consumers via robotaxis.

Auto-driving companies are constantly pushing for timelines that allow them to offer truly autonomous rides. There is only one fully autonomous program available in the U.S.

It is possible to automate the delivery of goods within less difficult environments such as in suburbs and along highway stretches. This will allow you to get more returns.

Motional, a U.S.-based Uber competitor, has operated a Las Vegas robotaxi pilot program with Motional Lyft Inc (NASDAQ:), over the previous three years. Motional and Lyft announced in November that they would launch in Las Vegas a completely driverless ride-hailing service by 2023.