Dive Brief:
- Uber Eats has launched robotic delivery in the Atlanta metro area through an expanded partnership with Serve Robotics, according to a Thursday announcement.
- Serve will deliver from a number of local restaurants, including Rreal Tacos and Ponko Chicken, in addition to Shake Shack, with which it has a nationwide delivery partnership.
- Serve and Uber already provide autonomous deliveries in the Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth and Miami metro areas, according to the press release.
Dive Insight:
Serve expects to deploy 2,000 robots across the U.S. by the end of this year through its Uber Eats partnership, according to the press release.
Continued expansion of the partnership could signal that Uber Eats sees robotic delivery as an important growth avenue in the future. Megan Jensen, head of autonomous delivery operations at Uber, said this marked the first time Uber Eats would offer robotic delivery in the Atlanta region.
The robotics firm will initially cover the Atlanta neighborhoods of midtown, old fourth ward and downtown, which house roughly 50,000 potential consumers combined, the company said. Serve plans to expand beyond these neighborhoods at some point in the future.
Serve said the expansion was a major milestone and that it would announce more U.S. markets in the coming months. Atlanta’s dynamism and car-dependency made it a logical target for autonomous delivery robots, Serve said.
“As one of the largest and fastest-growing markets in the Southeast, Atlanta is a strategic next step for our planned nationwide expansion,” Ali Kashani, Serve’s CEO and co-founder, said in a statement.
Serve claimed its battery powered robots could reduce traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions by taking cars off the road. The company said it “has proactively established constructive relationships with local stakeholders to ensure a seamless rollout.”
Serve has tailored its robots for Uber Eats' food delivery needs, rolling out a larger, faster model late last year as part of the expansion of its partnership with the platform.
Uber’s partnership with Serve is not exclusive. In October, Uber Eats announced it would work with Avride to offer delivery in Austin, Texas, and the delivery giant is also working with Coco in Los Angeles and Cartken in some Florida and Virginia areas.
