Robots are stepping up to takeout delivery

WITH the restaurant industry still facing labor shortages in the United States, technology could offer a partial solution when it comes to home-delivery services. In Miami, Uber Eats is now using robots to deliver takeout orders to some customers.

Powered by artificial intelligence, the mobile robots of the Californian company Cartken are sufficiently equipped with sensors and cameras to avoid collisions and follow the route (on the sidewalk) indicated to them.

Equipped with a box that can be opened from the top, the robots' mission is to deliver an order on behalf of their owner. In September, the Oakland-based start-up signed a contract with the European delivery giant DPD.

But these small, fully autonomous vehicles are now entering a very specific sector of home delivery, that of delivering takeout food orders for the restaurant industry.

Cartken is already a partner of the Grubhub platform, which delivers meals to American students on some university campuses. Its robots have now landed in the city of Miami, carrying orders on behalf of Uber Eats.

They deliver to customers in a particular area of the Florida city, in the vicinity of Dadeland, a commercial and residential area located south of downtown. Customers are notified of their arrival and have access to the interior of the vehicle by unlocking a security system via their smartphone.

The two American companies announced that other cities in the US would soon also be seeing these small robots.

With this new service, the meal delivery giant is accelerating its experimentation with technology as a new way to deliver orders to consumers. Since May, the American firm has been using autonomous vehicles (from the company Motional), but also autonomous robots (from Service Robotics), in Los Angeles to fulfill its orders.

These new delivery solutions are useful in several ways. Not only do they relieve traffic congestion, but they can potentially represent an ecological solution compared to a standard delivery made with a motorcycle or an ordinary car.

On a societal level, robots and autonomous vehicles can help compensate (partly) for the shortage of labor that is proving a major burden on the organization and business of restaurant owners.

According to the association that represents them in the United States (the National Restaurant Association), 60% of managers are having difficulties recruiting. And this poses a significant problem in the long term.

According to CNN, the growth of the American restaurant market is promising, estimated at +14% over the next 10 years. However, the sector will likely face a serious labor problem, since the US-born workforce is expected to grow by just 10%, suggesting the indispensable need for immigrant labor.