It is no secret that many companies envision a future in which robots will do a lot of the heavy lifting, whether it be in a factory, or simple tasks like food delivery. In fact that future is very near because it seems that Yelp’s Eat24 will be testing out robot food deliveries in San Francisco, thanks to a partnership with Marble.
For those unfamiliar, Marble is a company that has been developing ground-based robots that can navigate itself to a customer’s address. So how this robot delivery system works is that customers place their order via Yelp Eat24 as per normal, and then they are asked if they are OK with having their food delivered by robot, and if they agree they will then be sent a PIN code which they can use to unlock the robot’s cargo bay where their delivery will be held.
These Marble robots are not small as you can see in the video, but their size means that it should be able to hold multiple items at once, although it could be a challenge to navigate the streets and walkways. According to Matt Delaney, CEO and cofounder of Marble, “We’re starting with meals, but think our robots will be useful for everything from groceries, to pharmacy and parcel delivery in the long run.”
Marble isn’t the only company working on ground-based delivery robots as another company by the name of Starship is working on similar technology as well.