Despite Uber stopping its self-driving car development in 2020, the company has continued to show interest in autonomous technology for its services. This week, there was news that Serve Robotics plans to expand its collaboration with Uber Eats to deploy up to 2,000 smaller delivery robots in various locations in the U.S. and Canada by early 2022, according to TechCrunch. Initially, this partnership was just a small-scale delivery service in a section of Los Angeles that started last year, with over 200 restaurants utilizing this wheel-based bot to transport meals to hungry customers between 10 am and 9 pm.
The new delivery robots’ locations haven’t been revealed yet, but Dallas, San Jose, and Vancouver are reportedly the favored locations. Serve Robotics was founded in 2017 as part of Postmates’ robotics unit, and it became an independent startup company in 2021, following Uber’s purchase of Postmates a year prior. Serve’s waist-high robots move along the sidewalk on four wheels and are similar in design to those operated by other companies such as Starship Technologies and Ottonomy; Serve’s robot can function almost the whole day on a single battery charge and can travel at a maximum speed of 7 mph (about 11 kph). The robot has sensors, is autonomous, and contains a small compartment to carry meals, which unlocks when it arrives at its destination.
Serve Robotics’ co-founder and CEO, Ali Kashani, expressed enthusiasm for the expanded Uber collaboration, describing it as a “significant step toward autonomous delivery robotics’ mass commercialization.” Additionally, Uber has indicated continuing interest in autonomous technology, as the company announced that Waymo’s robot taxis would be accessible via Uber’s ridesharing app soon. Currently, Waymo offers robotaxi rides for consumers in Phoenix, Arizona’s parts through its Waymo One app. Furthermore, Uber has joined forces with Motional to offer food delivery in Santa Monica, California, using a self-driving version of Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 SUV.
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