Uber launches robot-assisted food delivery service in two US cities
Uber Technologies has launched pilot food delivery services with autonomous vehicles in two California cities, as well as adding electric vehicle charging stations into its global driver app.
According to Reuters, Uber announced one food delivery service using autonomous cars, and a separate pilot using sidewalk robots. Both services are available to Uber Eats users in Santa Monica and West Hollywood in California, and consumers will have the ability to opt out of the programs.
The autonomous car pilot is in collaboration with Motional, the self-driving joint venture of Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS) and Aptiv PLC (APTV.N), and was initially announced in December. read more It launched on Monday, Uber and Motional said.
According to the firm, the sidewalk robots are provided by Serve Robotics, a spin-off of delivery company Postmates, which Uber acquired in 2020.
The vehicles in both services are actively monitored by human operators, Uber said, adding that “it will be some time before this technology is operated at scale.”
Meanwhile, online food delivery platform Swiggy is all set to begin using drones to deliver groceries as part of its Instamart function soon. The firm has entered into a partnership with Garuda Aerospace to begin trial runs using drones to deliver groceries in Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region) and Bengaluru, Karnataka. The pilot project will assess the viability of using drones in Swiggy’s grocery delivery service Instamart.
The drones of startup Garuda Aerospace will be used in delivering grocery packages in Bengaluru for food and grocery player Bundl Technologies Pvt Ltd known by its brand Swiggy. It will be used to replenish inventory between seller-run dark stores and a “common customer point.”
Swiggy, in a blog post, said that a delivery partner will then pick up orders from the “common point” and deliver them to the customer.
Garuda Aerospace, in a statement, said that the development came in response to the request of the Swiggy Proposal (RFP) that had floated a few weeks ago. “The food delivery platform says that they receive 345 registration in total, and select four.”
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