FedEx chooses partnerships rather than proprietary technology for its automation strategy

Automation is coming to warehouses – fast. While some companies like Amazon are developing their own robotic fleets in-house, others have turned to outside players for their automation technology.

FedEx has engaged in both strategies. The $84 billion company has partnered with robotics companies as the best way to keep up with its peers in the race toward automation.

FedEx’s recent multi-year partnership with SoftBank-owned robotics company Berkshire Gray illustrates its strategy: turning to experts to develop robots that can take on repetitive and dangerous jobs for humans. Under the non-exclusive partnership, the two companies developed Scoop, a robot designed to unload bulk packages, or remove large packages of multiple packages from a truck at once.

FedEx will begin rolling out these robots in its warehouses through a pilot program later this year. Although these robots won’t work with every one of FedEx’s thousands of unloading doors, the company hopes to be able to scale the robot if all goes well.

Bulk unloading is one of the most physically demanding and unpredictable jobs in a FedEx warehouse, Stephanie Cook, director of advanced technology, innovation and robotics at FedEx, told TechCrunch. This is not the company’s first attempt to automate the bulk unloading process, Cook said, adding that they had difficulty finding the right robot for the job.

“There is nothing ready that we know will meet our needs,” Cook said. “We’ve worked with Berkshire Gray in the past and felt like this was the right fit for us in terms of collaboration. We knew it wasn’t something we could develop in just a matter of months. It was going to take a multi-year journey to get here.”

Bulk unloading is also an ideal role for the robot, OP Skaaksrud, vice president of advanced technology and innovation at FedEx, told TechCrunch. Although bulk offloading requires these robots to make decisions, they are not as precise as if a robot were picking or searching for specific packages, making the automation task less complex.

“Because we have such a wide variety of package mixes, to customize individual picking, it’s never going to be fast enough,” Skaksrud said. “That was another one of the trade-offs that we went to here, because there are unpackers that do individual selections. They’re not fast enough and they’re not able to do that kind of mixing.”

Cook said the company is looking to automate the riskiest and most physically demanding jobs in its warehouses first. These tend to be better for automation in general because they are often repetitive, allowing employees to work on less risky and more skilled jobs.

Picking and packing partners

The Memphis-based company develops technology internally, such as the FedEx SenseAware and SenseAware ID sensor systems, both of which help track packages.

But developing sensors and developing robotics are not the same thing, Skaksrud said.

“The whole package and sensor development is complex, but developing robotics capabilities is next level,” Skaksrud said. “It’s much better and faster to partner with other companies in this space to move faster. That’s the way we look at it. We see these partnerships as really benefiting both Fedex and the companies we work with.”

Berkshire Gray isn’t the only FedEx partnership focused on automation. The company has entered into several partnerships (and conducted pilots) in recent years as it works to automate more of its operations inside and outside the warehouse.

Inside the warehouse, the company is working with Dexterity, a billion-dollar robotics startup that specializes in robots with a “human-like” touch. It also has a deal with another startup called Nimble which is building fully autonomous warehouses.

Autonomous deliveries, both last-mile and long-haul, are also an area of ​​focus.

The company signed a pilot deal with self-driving trucking startup Aurora Innovation in 2021 for the self-driving truck company to be able to transport packages for the shipper on select routes in Texas. The two companies expanded their ongoing partnership in 2022 and have since completed more than 3,200 self-loading operations.

FedEx also partnered with Nuro, an autonomous robotic last-mile delivery company, in 2021. At the time, FedEx said it was a long-term commitment and that it had plans to expand the last-mile delivery option. Nuro switched from delivery to licensing its standalone technology in 2025 and FedEx no longer works with the company.

Last-mile delivery is another area the company has tried to address internally with mixed success. FedEx developed and released the SameDay Bot in 2019 to help with last-mile delivery, but the bots didn’t receive a warm reception — they were even kicked out of New York City by former Mayor Bill de Blasio. The company moved on from them after a few years but reiterated that this is still an area they focus on.

Keep it real

While the company is focused on not being left behind in the broader automation race, Skaksrud and Cook said that doesn’t mean FedEx will get ahead of itself either. The company doesn’t just grab the next shiny robot or tech every time it’s released.

“Don’t focus too much on technology alone, because then we will fail,” Skaksrud said. “It’s really a three-dimensional chess game that you’re playing here. You have to solve all these different components, which are often not glamorous and interesting, that are part of the overall solution. We’re definitely doing what’s needed to have not only interesting technology, but also interesting production technology that will solve business problems.”

The company isn’t concerned that its partnership strategy won’t lead to much proprietary technology, either. Skaaksrud said the devices themselves are just devices. He argued that FedEx trucks are just trucks and that the network and brains behind the company’s delivery network is what makes them FedEx.

While the headlines may make it seem like every company is doing their best to automate everything, FedEx said it plans to stay measured as it rolls out these new technologies.

For Cook, the main focus of these strategies continues to be the people working inside these warehouses, which means technology must be designed to work alongside these people, making their jobs easier, while keeping them safe.

For this reason, and because the company focuses first on areas with a clear return on investment, one area it is not interested in is humanoid robots.

“The coordination between many human beings in a limited space is very dynamic,” Skaksrud said. “You know how difficult that is.” “I think humanoid robots are very interesting, and we’re certainly paying attention to them, but they’re fit for purpose. You have to figure it out because the hype is really loud, but there’s a lot of potential there in the long term. But you have to understand the limitations and set your expectations accordingly.”