Dive Brief:
- Grubhub and Avride will pilot robotic delivery at Wonder’s food hall location in Jersey City, New Jersey as an expansion of their delivery partnership, according to a press release.
- Wonder, which acquired Grubhub late last year, will offer delivery from approximately 20 concepts at its location.
- The pilot will be the first time Grubhub has offered autonomous delivery outside of a college campus, according to the press release. Jersey City’s population density — more than 19,000 people per square mile — makes it an ideal testing ground for last-mile delivery technology.
Dive Insight:
Consumers within a set distance of the Wonder location can opt to have their Grubhub orders delivered by robot. Grubhub will draw lessons from the test to inform its planned expansion of autonomous delivery in other markets, according to the press release.
Grubhub and Avride currently offer robotic delivery at a number of colleges, including the Ohio State University, which the companies claim is “the largest single-site robot food delivery program in the country, where a fleet of over 120 robots delivers meals to students every day.”
Grubhub’s move comes after a slew of autonomous delivery announcements from Uber Eats and DoorDash in the last six weeks. Uber invested in Flytrex in hopes of expanding drone delivery in September. Serve Robotics then announced it was bringing its sidewalk delivery robots to Chicago as part of its Uber Eats partnership.
DoorDash countered these moves by announcing it was building its own delivery robot, and then by partnering with Serve in Los Angeles. Last week, Starship, another robotic delivery company with a Grubhub partnership, announced a $50 million funding round intended to expand its U.S. delivery operations beyond college campuses.
Wonder, a rapidly expanding food hall/ghost kitchen brand, has raised over $1.3 billion since switching from its initial food truck model to a brick-and-mortar restaurant system. That capital has financed significant expansion for the ghost kitchen chain, which had 11 units in early 2024 and now lists about 100 locations on its website. Wonder’s ownership of Grubhub gives it a built-in delivery system.
