Serve Partners with Wing to Amplify Robot Deliveries

Tuesday, 1 October 2024, 04:03

Serve has partnered with Wing to enhance its robot deliveries, expanding the delivery range without adding equipment requirements. The collaboration aims to combine robots and drones for improved efficiency. With a focus on safer deliveries, Serve seeks to overcome the limitations of its current delivery range, ensuring timely service.

Theverge — Serve Partners with Wing to Amplify Robot Deliveries

Expanding the Delivery Landscape

Serve Robotics has announced a pilot partnership with Wing Aviation to expand the range of its autonomous food delivery without requiring restaurants to install new equipment to accommodate drone pickups.

Innovative Delivery Technology

Serve, which was spun out of the app-based delivery company Postmates in 2021, has been making Uber Eats food deliveries in Los Angeles for a few years now, using robots that look like autonomous shopping carts. Serve claims that its delivery robots can be a safer alternative to cars and help reduce traffic congestion as they operate primarily on sidewalks. With a top speed of around six miles per hour, there is little to no risk to pedestrians.

Current Limitations and Future Prospects

However, this approach does limit the robot's ability to deliver food promptly. Although Serve states that its robots can handle up to 25 miles while carrying 50 pounds of food, half of their deliveries in Los Angeles are within two miles from the restaurant, according to Dr. Ali Kashani, Serve's CEO and cofounder.

A New Partnership

The partnership with Wing aims to extend that delivery range to a six-mile radius through a robot-to-drone multimodal delivery solution. Wing, owned by Alphabet, introduced its Wing Delivery Network last year, which includes AutoLoader stations for receiving deliveries via autonomous drones. Retailers can opt to install these stations, though smaller restaurants may find this unfeasible.

The Pilot Program

The pilot will begin in Dallas, where select Wing deliveries will be collected by a Serve robot and taken to a nearby Wing AutoLoader station for drone delivery. With drones able to travel up to 65 mph, unimpeded by traffic, this partnership offers a promising solution for efficient food delivery.

Anticipated Launch

The launch of this service is expected in the coming months and serves to expand Wing's drone delivery operations, especially for merchants with limited space and those not looking to hire additional staff.

This article was prepared using information from open sources in accordance with the principles of Ethical Policy. The editorial team is not responsible for absolute accuracy, as it relies on data from the sources referenced.