Uber is heating up the competition in the autonomous vehicle segment. The company sent its Otto truck on a 120-mile journey to deliver beer.

Uber claims that the drive is the first-ever commercial delivery carried out by a self-driving vehicle. Otto is an autonomous truck company owned by Uber. The journey started from Fort Collins in Colorado and ended in Colorado Springs.

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The drive made use of a map and information sharing technologies in the lines of the information sharing carried out by airplanes. The route for the self-driving truck was pre-mapped by other Otto vehicles. The drive was entirely hands-free. However, a human driver was seated in the vehicle to tackle local streets and for the emergency cases.

Commercial autonomous vehicles are likely to face less resistance than the autonomous vehicles for ferrying around humans. However, Otto has emphasized that it is not looking to replace human drivers and that its main motive is to aid them. Commercial autonomous driving is also yet to be approved by regulators. The approval may have to be obtained from individual states.

Uber is now looking to monetize its new achievement. The company is reportedly inviting inquiries for such autonomous deliveries. The new service is called Uber Freight. The company said in a blog post that its partnership with Anheuser-Busch "is just beginning."

Uber acquired Otto for nearly $700 million. The startup consisted of Carnegie Mellon and Google veterans. The startup's co-founder Anthony Levandowski is leading Uber's self-driving segment and reports directly to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.