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Comment by paulsutter | Hacker News Reader

99% of their code will be ordinary CRUD plumbing, dealing with orders and integrating with other systems. The algorithmic code is the fun part, and they've had years to tune it.

This is just self-congratulatory PR, trying to persuade potential investors that's they're a hard tech company.

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Ocado is an interesting case. Their public line is that they're a technology company that happened to end up delivering groceries. They invest a lot in automation and robotics - definitely a hard tech company:

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2017/02/inside-ocado-discover-the-h...

This is not a vapourware start-up, they've been leading the grocery delivery business in the UK for years. That said, they have the same problem as Amazon in that they invest so much into RnD that they're not terribly profitable (about £10M on a $1Bn turnover).

That said, in this particular example I don't know how much their solution differs from Royal Mail (which uses fixed routes) or people like DHL, Fedex, et al. Routing isn't exactly a new problem and courier companies presumably have always had a lot of people working in operations research.

This gives a comparison between various developers of routing software, including Ocado https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608640/inside-the-increas...

The missus uses Ocado, they really have their shit together in the UK on the logistics side (a field I work in but not groceries), the deliveries are on time, the process is slick and professional and the drivers are polite and helpful.

She swears by them, I mostly swear at the bill.

Or to try and persuade techies to come and work for them on more CRUD plumbing.

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