Deliveroo is rolling out robot deliveries to multiple cities across the UK in partnership with US robotics firm Coco.
Coco’s robots – which have a top speed of 21kph and can carry four 18-inch pizzas at a time – will begin rolling out in Canary Wharf in London this month, fulfilling orders from a small group of merchants in the area.
Deliveroo’s robot delivery fleet will soon expand to Milton Keynes, Leeds, Stockton-on-Tees and Nottingham in the coming months.
“We see huge potential in autonomous delivery and we are looking forward to working with Coco to bring more flexibility to our delivery network, helping local restaurants and shops meet increasing consumer demand,” said Miki Kuusi, CEO at Deliveroo and head of DoorDash International.
“We firmly believe that robot and drone technology should benefit high street businesses of all sizes, helping them remain competitive and meet consumers in new ways,” he added.
Consumers will initially be able to order from the likes of Patty&Bun, independent family-run bakery Signorelli and café and restaurant Beam, in Canary Wharf, before the service area expands to include “a wider pool of merchants at a later stage”, including Ole & Steen, Royal China and Din Tai Fung.
In Milton Keynes, consumers will be able to order from Smoke & Pepper and 5 Akhis, among others, when the service arrives in the town.
While the majority of orders will continue to be fulfilled by Deliveroo’s rider network, the company said, the fully electric robots “are suited to short-distances and navigating urban environments, offering additional flexibility to local businesses on Deliveroo’s platform to fulfil more orders”.
The deal with Deliveroo marks Coco’s entry into the UK, the delivery robot market of which has been long dominated by Starship Technologies, which partners with Co-op, Uber Eats and Just Eat.
The launch would be backed by local investment in UK operational infrastructure such as robot depots and charging facilities, and would create new skilled jobs in operations, maintenance and logistics, Coco said.
“The interest here has been incredible, and we’re committed to building something that creates lasting value for local merchants and the communities they serve,” said Zach Rash, CEO and co-founder of Coco Robotics.
“As we expand further across the UK, we look forward to giving more businesses another reliable delivery option and more communities access to the kind of infrastructure that makes delivery work better for everyone,” he added.
As they become an increasingly common sight in many UK towns, food delivery robots have come under fire from campaign groups like charity Living Streets, which claims the robots are putting “millions of disabled and vulnerable pedestrians” at risk.
A YouGov poll commissioned by the charity found 60% of respondents wanted the bots outlawed from pedestrian pavements. Of those, some 80% believed the robots caused problems for blind people, with a similar proportion (79%) thinking they negatively impacted pedestrians with mobility issues.
Last month, Chancellor John Healey last week in which he vowed to make it easier for tech firms to test “frontier technologies” such as pavement delivery robots with new “sandboxing powers”. The powers will make it easier for companies to “safely test” such technologies, which might be currently “prevented by the system of regulation”. These new powers would be “ready to deploy across the economy next year”, Healey said.
Deliveroo and Coco have been working to win the support of local authorities ahead of launching, and have forged a partnership with BlindSquare, a widely used GPS app for blind and partially sighted people, to share “real-time sidewalk hazard data”.
Coco – whose primary backer and lead investor is OpenAI CEO Sam Altman – has been working with Deliveroo parent company DoorDash and sister company Wolt in several cities, including including Los Angeles, San Jose, Chicago, Miami, Washington D.C. and Helsinki. It also works with Uber Eats in the US. Coco’s robots have completed more than 500,000 deliveries across cities in the United States and Europe.
DoorDash said that it continues to invest in autonomous delivery solutions. Last year Deliveroo began trials with unmanned aerial vehicle operator Manna in Dublin. DoorDash, meanwhile, has developed its own in-house autonomous delivery robot, Dot, which is operating in Phoenix, Arizona.
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