Frost Radar™: Unmanned Ground Vehicles for Commercial Last-Mile Deliveries, 2024

Frost Radar™: Unmanned Ground Vehicles for Commercial Last-Mile Deliveries, 2024

A Benchmarking System to Spark Companies to Action - Innovation that Fuels New Deal Flow and Growth Pipelines

This Frost Radar™ evaluates companies that develop and provide unmanned ground solutions for the commercial last-mile delivery market. An unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) is a small or medium-sized system designed to operate under remote control and may be capable of operating semi or fully autonomously. UGVs are gaining relevance in the logistics and delivery industries—they can carry packages and goods for short-distance deliveries, making them a valuable solution for last-mile logistics challenges. These sizes were selected to focus the study’s scope on systems designed specifically for last-mile delivery, excluding autonomous large vehicles and autonomous trucks. Smaller systems have the highest adoption rate thanks to their flexibility, which allows them to operate in urban environments and lower security risks. The discussion will revolve around companies that design and manufacture UGVs for this specific use case.

The last-mile delivery market experienced significant growth during the lockdown period of the pandemic, a time in which demand for deliveries grew exponentially. In addition, the use of autonomous vehicles to encourage contactless deliveries provided these businesses with the required exposure to boost public opinion and raise awareness among the public of this use case.

Coming out of the pandemic, profitability concerns arise from well-established last-mile delivery companies—they are entering the market with unproven technology, which poses unique challenges to growth.

Due to the nascent state of this market, the market size and growth rate of each company were calculated using the funding amounts as a base, yet still considering several additional factors such as the number of partnerships established, systems in operation, and cities where it operates, among others.

Frost & Sullivan analyzes numerous companies in an industry. Those selected for further analysis based on their leadership or other distinctions are benchmarked across 10 Growth and Innovation criteria to reveal their position on the Frost Radar™. The publication presents competitive profiles of each company on the Frost Radar™ considering their strengths and the opportunities that best fit those strengths.