Costco trials driverless forklifts

A Costco distribution site in South Jersey is testing forklifts with no driver in the seat, and the machines are doing one of the hardest warehouse jobs: going into trailers, pulling out pallets, and bringing them back to the dock. A video posted in April 2026 shows one of the vehicles loading and unloading trailers inside a Costco facility. (youtube.com) This is not the sales floor where shoppers buy paper towels and rotisserie chickens. It is the back-end logistics network that feeds Costco’s 914 warehouses worldwide, including 633 in the United States and Puerto Rico as of August 31, 2025. (sec.gov) The job being automated is unusually repetitive. A trailer arrives, a forklift enters a long metal box with tight clearance, picks up a pallet, backs out, drops it at the dock, and repeats that cycle dozens of times. (foxrobotics.com) That narrow trailer work is exactly where autonomous forklift companies have aimed first. Fox Robotics says its automated truck loader can unload trailers in 45 minutes or less and lets one operator manage multiple machines instead of sitting on one forklift for an entire shift. (foxrobotics.com) The reason companies start here is simple: trailer loading and unloading is structured. The route is short, the floor plan changes less than a retail aisle, and the task is mostly pallet in, pallet out, which makes it easier for sensors and software to repeat safely. (warehousetech.net) Forklifts are also one of the more dangerous pieces of equipment in a warehouse. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration says powered industrial trucks carry hazards tied to falling loads, workplace conditions, and the type of truck being used. (osha.gov) So the labor shift is not “warehouse work disappears.” It is closer to “one person stops driving one truck all day and starts supervising several machines, clearing exceptions, checking pallets, and managing dock flow when something does not fit the script.” (foxrobotics.com) That creates a second layer of work that is less visible in the viral clip. Someone has to map the site, mark safe travel lanes, handle battery charging, maintain sensors, enforce pedestrian rules, and decide what the robot should do when a trailer is loaded badly or a pallet is damaged. (gideon.ai) Costco is not the only signal here. Fox Robotics has marketed similar systems into large distribution operations for years, and Symbotic said in early 2026 that it acquired Fox Robotics to expand from warehouse automation into dock operations. (therobotreport.com) That deal matters because Symbotic already sells automation to giant retailers, and dock work has been one of the messier handoff points between trucks and automated storage systems. Buying a forklift autonomy company suggests the next race is not just inside the warehouse racks but at the trailer door. (roboticsandautomationnews.com) The South Jersey test is a small scene, but it points to a bigger retail pattern. Stores still look human at the front, while the back end gets more robotic one chokepoint at a time, starting with the dock where every pallet has to pass. (sec.gov)