In a move set to transform the constantly-evolving food delivery industry, Uber Eats and Serve Robotics have officially announced their plans to introduce robot food delivery services in major cities across the United States starting in 2026. This joint venture aims to revolutionize the way meals are delivered to customers, providing an automated, seamless and efficient experience.

The robots can go 40 kilometres on a single charge

Serve Robotics, an independent company that broke off from Uber’s business, has developed a four-wheeled robot powered by advanced AI technology for precise path planning. With a remarkable battery life of approximately 40 kilometres, these robots can transport packages weighing up to 23 kilograms, effectively catering to a wide range of delivery needs. Each robot is capable of managing multiple orders daily, ensuring swift and reliable service.

Uber has pledged its commitment to achieving a zero-carbon emission delivery platform by 2040, and the integration of robot deliveries plays a pivotal role in this mission. As part of the service, Uber Eats customers will soon have the option to choose robot delivery for their meals. Once the robot reaches the specified destination, the customer can securely retrieve their order by entering a password, ensuring a seamless and safe experience.

Field testing of robot food delivery services has already commenced in California, marking a significant milestone in the journey toward a fully automated delivery system. Building on this success, Uber plans to expand its partnership with Serve Robotics to include additional cities in 2026. San Jose, California, Dallas, Texas, and Vancouver, Canada are among the locations expected to witness the deployment of up to 2,000 delivery robots.

While the introduction of robot food delivery services holds great promise, there are several potential challenges that these robots may face in urban environments. One significant issue is navigating complex city streets and crowded sidewalks. The robots need to safely maneuver through various obstacles such as pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles, while adhering to traffic rules. Additionally, they must accurately identify and reach specific delivery locations, which can be challenging in densely populated areas with high-rise buildings and intricate addresses. Moreover, there is the concern of potential theft or vandalism of the robots and their cargo, which may require robust security measures.

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In a clear indication of the transformation going on across the world in the use of robots, a Singapore-based tech firm has begun a pilot program to deploy robots for home delivery of groceries in a part of the city. OTSAW Digital manufactured two robots dubbed Camello delivery robots and deployed them for the pilot run with their combined coverage of grocery supplies put at 700 households. The one-year pilot run was conceptualized as a possible solution to meeting a surge in demands of fundamental essentials at specific periods, which may mean that several households may be starved of vital supplies.

The robots were fitted with several gadgets and technology that enable them to remain thoroughly disinfected during their delivery sessions to users who would have pre-ordered their groceries via an app. The user is notified when the robots, both named Camello, are approaching their vicinity, and the goods are collected from a predefined collection point.

The robots can carry loads up to 20kg, work on weekdays and Saturdays, and it has become a spectacle for residents. In a statement by OTSAW Digital’s CEO, Ling Ting Ming, the robots use ultraviolet light to disinfect themselves after every trip.

The robots are currently being accompanied by the tech firm staff but are capable of autonomous activities. The residents of the part of the city serviced by the robots expressed varied feelings on their new “grocery delivery guys”. While some residents are thrilled by the delivery robots, others feel it may be too much for the elderly to cope with the technology.

The coronavirus pandemic has further revealed more applications of robots to carry out several conventional jobs of humans. Recently in Japan, robots were deployed to deliver COVID-19 test kits and collect samples of persons who wanted to test for the virus. A Swiss company also deployed a UV spraying robot to disinfect the interior of a passenger aircraft.

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Robotic startup firm, Nuro has gotten official approval to start its paid delivery service with autonomous vehicles. This much was revealed by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Steve Gordon, DMV director stated that the permit granted to Nuro marks a significant milestone in the evolution of autonomous vehicles in California.
The deliveries of groceries, food, and medicines will begin in two localities in the vicinity of the company’s Mountain View headquarters. San Francisco and Silicon Valley’s streets have experienced a surge in self-driving vehicles in their roads for several years, albeit mainly on temporary permits for testing purposes. That has now changed with the entry of robotics-startup Nuro as a paid service provider for autonomous deliveries.

In 2017, the company was given the approval to test its vehicles with safety drivers inside, and in April 2020, the company got further approval to commence testing without safety drivers.

Nuro, earlier this year, raised $500 million as it expands its operations and said it will begin delivery service with modified Prius vehicles set in fully autonomous mode, and thereafter launch its fleet of fully autonomous R2 vehicles, that come without a steering wheel or driver’s seat.

The R2 has a top speed of 56 km per hour and is a four-foot sized car. It operates with thermal imaging, radar, and 360-degree cameras, to drive on the public road safely and intelligently.

The company expects its new service to make an instant hit with Californians, as the delivery service will help streamline the lives of big, busy families, while also taking care of the needs of persons who can’t drive for one reason or the other.

The delivery service is just a tip of the expansion plans of the company, which recently announced the acquisition of autonomous trucking firm, Ike, for an undisclosed sum.
Nuro has also filed several patents including one to capture smart advertisements displayed on the side of a self-driving vehicle.

You can also check out our video below of how Xiaomi flagships have evolved over the years from the Mi 1 – Mi 10.

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A driverless robot that is known as Yandex.Rover for delivering hot restaurant meals to customers in Moscow has started work today. This much was said by the operator and internet giant, Yandex.

The Yandex.Eats app, one of many food and grocery delivery services in Moscow, is offering customers around the White Square business district the opportunity to have their meals delivered by the buggy-like robot instead of a human delivery.

The robot called the Yandex.Rover has been delivering groceries in some Moscow areas as part of a pilot program that started a few months back in autumn. It is now gradually expanding its area of operations in the Russian capital, Yandex has said in a statement.

The robot collects orders from restaurants and brings them to the customer who then unlocks the robot using their smartphone and lifts out the food.

Three of these robots are now operating in the White Square area of the city. The size of the growing fleet of delivery robots stands at 20.

The advent of the Yandex delivery service, together with the alternative Delivery Club, as expected, implies the days of human delivery couriers in Moscow may be numbered, even though they have grown in numbers in recent years.

Over the summer, five Russian retail businesses unveiled a monument in the city to honour the tens of thousands of delivery couriers who had kept Moscow running at the height of the forced lockdown as a.result of the COVID-19 pandemic that ravaged most parts of the world.

In the statement, Dmitry Polishchuk, CEO of Yandex’s Self-Driving division highlighted that the demand for delivery services has been on an upward trajectory which was exponentially accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic.

In November of 2019, Yandex disclosed that it had started testing autonomous delivery robots that had been deployed for commercial purposes in Innopolis, a sort of silicon valley district in the Tatarstan region. The world is presently experiencing an upsurge in the deployment of robots but no better place have we witnessed a widescale robotics usage than in Japan. From enforcing physical distancing and showing visitors around a store to cheerleading during a baseball game, to being deployed as a tourist attraction, it is no surprise that Japan is regarded as the robotics headquarters of the world.

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