Motional, a driverless car company with offices in Santa Monica, has begun offering food delivery through Uber Eats. The offering is an expansion for Motional who have been working on driverless taxi service for several years…

The delivery vehicles are a variation on the company’s all electric taxis and Motional said it has spent months preparing for the launch.

Participating merchants will receive a notification when the car arrives, meet the vehicle at the designated pick-up location, and place the order in a specially-designed compartment in the backseat. Upon arrival at the drop-off location, the customer will receive an alert, securely unlock the vehicle door via the Uber Eats app, and collect their order from the backseat.

The service will allow Motional and Uber to study the integration of their technologies, consumer demand, the user interactions with the vehicle, and additional autonomy features needed to enable autonomous deliveries.