Serve Robotics has deployed more than 500 sidewalk delivery robots across 40 Los Angeles neighborhoods, up from just two neighborhoods in 2023, as the California company races to prove that autonomous machines can replace human couriers.<\/p>\n
The company, which spun out of Uber\u2019s Postmates in 2021, has expanded to six metropolitan areas covering 20 cities nationally, Ali Kashani, Serve\u2019s chief executive, told The Times. In Los Angeles, there are now Serve bots serving South Central, Del Rey, Little Tokyo and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
He described the milestone as \u201can overnight success built over a long time,\u201d noting that the project began in 2017.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles is the second-largest food delivery market after New York and was Serve\u2019s founding territory because of its car-dependent culture and high delivery density. It was also one of the first cities to allow the delivery bots. <\/p>\n
The Los Angeles fleet runs on its most advanced Gen-3 robot, which carries onboard Nvidia chips providing five times the processing power of the previous model. <\/p>\n
The additional computing power allows the machine to identify a broader range of obstacles, from bus shelters to specific types of vegetation. <\/p>\n
Serve has operated at what the industry calls \u201cLevel 4\u201d autonomy since 2022, meaning the robots complete most tasks autonomously but request assistance from a remote pilot or an on-ground \u201crobot wrangler<\/a>\u201d when they are stuck or get attacked.<\/p>\n The company has partnerships with more than 3,500 restaurants across Uber Eats and DoorDash. Their robot fleet of 2,000 robots uses AI to learn to beetter navigate unpredictable outdoor street intersections, crosswalks, climate conditions and obstacles. <\/p>\n Not every city is welcoming the growing fleet. Glendale recently imposed a moratorium on delivery robots, a setback Kashani called \u201cobviously disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n Kashani said the company never enters a city without first engaging officials and, in some cases, sharing operational data with the city, such as maps of curb cuts and intersections requiring manual pedestrian crossing buttons. <\/p>\n Still, at a Glendale City Council meeting in March<\/a>, one council member said the robots \u201cjust appeared on our streets and took over the sidewalks,\u201d raising concerns over how it might affect the livelihoods of human delivery workers. <\/p>\n Some council members defended the robots, calling the ban a \u201cknee-jerk reaction\u201d as robot fleets have the potential to reduce road congestion and delivery costs, and present a chance to generate revenue from bot licenses. <\/p>\n Major concerns included potential obstruction to accessibility ramps, lack of clarity on ownership and insurance, and questions on whether the city was notified before operations began on the sidewalks. Chicago recently banned<\/a> the expansion of autonomous delivery robots. <\/p>\n More than 20 states have passed legislation broadly permitting sidewalk robots, Kashani said, and local municipalities have also imposed their own restrictions on speed, weight, and designated streets for operations. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s always a little bit of push and pull when it comes to bringing in new technology like this to the city,\u201d he said. \u201cWe try to be very engaged. Look, nobody knows why these things exist when you show up the first day.\u201d<\/p>\n Kashani said the company is in discussions with city officials across the country, from New York to Boston to San Jose, and aims to expand internationally to Vancouver, Toronto, Sydney and Melbourne. <\/p>\n