Share the post "Uber Eats continues to develop ways of removing the human factor from their deliveries"
Uber and it’s food delivery company Uber eats have been looking into ways of improving their services. One of the main factors and costs is the humans that are performing the delivery services. However, Uber plans to change it in the upcoming years.
Serve Robotics, the company started and funded by Uber, is aiming to develop robots which are able to perform short-distance deliveries for restaurants, without the need for a driver, or a delivery man/woman. The robots are starting their test this Monday (16th of May) in Los Angeles. A few restaurants and shops are only available for the users for testing as of right now, but Uber is clear about its plans to broaden the list in the upcoming time.
The second technology uber is testing is the autonomous delivery vehicles. The company Motional has been focusing on developing automated taxi services, but now has shifted its focus onto automated deliveries. The test is also starting Today (16th of May), during which the users will be able to order food through the app, and the automated car will drive itself to the destination. Once there, the user will be notified to meet the driver near the sidewalk and will get a code to open a special box in the backseat of the car to get their food. The car is driving on itself during the test, but the human driver needs to be present at all times, as per the regulations of the law.
It seems the dystopian future of empty streets with robots riding and driving around with deliveries is getting closer and closer to reality. As cool as it all seems, I am doubtful people will easily adapt to getting food from a robot, instead of a human-assisted delivery. What do you all think?
References:
Uber Eats pilots autonomous delivery with Serve Robotics, Motional
https://roboticsandautomationnews.com/2021/11/09/serve-robotics-provides-delivery-robots-to-uber-eats/47012/
I feel like robot-couriers won’t be a surprise to our society so people will get used to it easily. However, it is a perfect example of the biggest fear of humanity coming true – it’s taking over A LOT of job places..:(
I am really looking forward to see those autobots in Praga Północ district on those dirty, bumpy sidewalks 😉 PS for sure no one will steal it
I believe that if tech like this was tested and approved by the government, the society would easily adapt to using it. Uber, Bolt etc. already minimised the influence of human factor on user’s experience. Sometimes, we don’t even see the delivery worker from Uber Eats or not hear a single word from Uber driver – I think we are ready to adapt to autonomous services.
I am really surprised by how fast these autonomous technologies develop. However, it is interesting how the difficult surfaces, weather conditions, and complicated surroundings will affect the overall performance.