Kristin Kolodge, executive director of driver interaction & human machine interface research for research firm J.D. Power, believes that’s possible. A trained engineer who is enthusiastic about solving the challenges that autonomous vehicles offer, she has noted what she calls a persistent gap between the automotive industry’s apparent ardor for developing automated vehicle technology and the lackluster level of interest, trust, and general acceptance by the public at large. That perception is not anecdotal either. Kolodge is the prime mover in J.D. Power’s ongoing tracking of consumer sentiment about automated vehicles…

As she noted in a recent white paper she wrote on the subject, the idea of contactless delivery—via automated vehicles—is creating an enhanced business case for certain categories of automated transportation. This is a major shot in the arm for companies like Nuro, which received federal safety approval this February for a self-driving vehicle, purpose-built for delivering groceries.
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