Uber is expanding its use of autonomous delivery vehicles with the announcement that it will soon deploy sidewalk robots developed in Miami, Florida.
The six-wheeled delivery robots will come from Cartken, an Oakland-based AI company founded by a team of ex-Google engineers best known for deploying their vehicles on college campuses.
The robots will deliver items offered by a range of companies in the Dadeland area of Miami-Dade County, with plans to expand to larger areas of the city and some additional markets in 2023. Uber claims its partnership with Cartken is the “first formal partnership with a global on-demand delivery app outside of college campuses.”
Curbside delivery robots are becoming a common sight on many college campuses
Cartken’s robots are electric, with a trunk that can hold nearly two dozen pounds of cargo, and have a number of built-in cameras that can be used to identify obstacles and guide them to their destination. Cartken’s robots are manufactured by car supplier Magna.
The robots have a delivery radius of several miles, but can only drive slightly slower than walking, which is clearly slower than a delivery by a human on a bicycle or in a car. And they can climb curbs, but not stairs, which may limit their appeal to customers who live in multi-story buildings.
Notoriously, Uber had been developing its own fleet of autonomous vehicles with the intention of eventually replacing all of its human drivers, but the program was shut down after a woman was killed by one of the company’s vehicles in 2017.
