If you live in San Jose, Dallas, or Vancouver, you may soon be sharing the sidewalk with an army of delivery robots from Serve Robotics, which is expanding its partnership with Uber Eats to deploy up to 2,000 of the bots across the US.
Founded in 2017 as the robotics division of Uber-owned food delivery service Postmates, Serve Robotics designs, develops, and operates zero-emissions bots. Currently covering Los Angeles and San Francisco, the company has been working with more than 200 California restaurants to dish out meals via the Uber Eats platform.
Serve Robotics didn't specify where its delivery robots will pop up, but TechCrunch says "the company is eyeing San Jose, Dallas, and Vancouver" for an expansion that will last through 2026.
Serve's sidewalk robots run seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. They're capable of Level 4 autonomy, allowing them to operate routinely without human intervention, TechCrunch reports.
Uber is no stranger to driverless robots. Together with AI-powered partner Cartken, the firm recently expanded a food delivery pilot from Miami to Fairfax, Virginia, where bots now roam the sidewalks, dropping off meals and providing curbside pickup to locals.
Last week, meanwhile, Uber announced a surprise "multi-year strategic partnership" with rival Waymo to make self-driving car rides available to customers in Phoenix, Arizona.