Food delivery robots hit Canadian sidewalks, but many challenges delay mass adoption

TORONTO –

When clients in downtown Vancouver positioned orders with Pizza Hut in September, lots of the pies landed on their doorsteps with out a courier in sight.

Instead, diners have been met by Angie, Hugo or Raja — autonomous robots resembling a cooler on 4 wheels with eyelike lights. They travelled by sidewalk to clients, who used distinctive codes to open their lids and reveal their meals.

The worth proposition for Serve Robotics — a by-product of Uber’s 2020 meals supply acquisition Postmates that created the trio and a fleet of zero-emission robots — is straightforward: with slim restaurant margins, a labour crunch and local weather change worries “why move a two-pound burrito in a two-ton car?”

A handful of different robotic supply firms have the identical ethos, however their paths to ubiquity are dealing with a number of roadblocks.

Delivery robots have been banned from some main cities like Toronto, which argued they’re a hazard for individuals with low mobility or imaginative and prescient, in addition to seniors and kids. Cyclists already gripe about e-scooters in bike lanes and don’t desire robots there both.

“They’re drawing a lot of attention from pedestrians while they’re out on the sidewalk because they’re not seeing them that often and people are excited to see them, but as usage continues to increase, this can cause a lot of congestion on already narrow sidewalks,” mentioned Prabhjot Gill, a McKinsey & Co. affiliate accomplice centered on retail.

There’s additionally worries autonomous robots or ones manned by workers abroad will take jobs away from couriers.

Ali Kashani, Serve’s Vancouver-bred chief govt, considers the criticism to be a pure a part of innovation that even the bicycle skilled, when it was invented and plenty of thought it might trigger divorce.

He’s tried to quiet issues by making certain his robots (Kashani will not say what number of there are) chime and flash their lights to alert individuals they’re round. They are outfitted with automated crash prevention, car collision avoidance and emergency braking.

Ultimately, he thinks they’re “a win-win for everybody” as a result of they cut back site visitors, enhance native commerce and assist retailers get meals to customers in a inexpensive approach.

The atmosphere advantages too as a result of Serve replaces supply automobiles. Kashani estimates roughly half the deliveries made within the nation cowl lower than 2.5 miles and 90 per cent are accomplished by automotive. About two per cent of worldwide greenhouse fuel emissions worldwide are attributable to individuals utilizing private automobiles for native procuring and errands.

“There’s a lot of reasons to replace our cars with these robots as quickly as we really can, but there’s no reason for us to make anyone an enemy,” Kashani mentioned.

Knowing how a lot opposition new concepts can face, Serve is cautious to have interaction with governments and authorities earlier than launching in a metropolis, even when it has no laws permitting or banning robots.

However, David Lepofsky, chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, mentioned there is no approach for such robots and people to coexist as a result of they may all the time current a tripping hazard and worse, they may very well be used to move contraband or explosives.

He insists the combat he and others have waged to maintain robots off sidewalks just isn’t an assault on innovation.

“It’s not like we’re denying people a service,” he mentioned. “We’ve got a way to deliver pizzas that we’ve had since we’ve had pizza delivery. It’s called human beings.”

Manish Dhankher, Pizza Hut Canada’s chief buyer officer, agrees no pizza supply is value risking anyone’s security, however mentioned his firm solely partnered with Serve as soon as the robots had made hundreds of injury-free journeys.

Serve robots solely made close by deliveries for Pizza Hut’s 1725 Robson St. location for 2 weeks, however the pilot generated “childlike excitement” from clients and had a 95 per cent satisfaction charge.

Dhankher stresses the aim was modernizing pizza deliveries, not price discount. Couriers made the identical variety of deliveries they did earlier than the robots have been in use.

But Pizza Hut is not able to roll out robots completely.

“We want to learn more,” he mentioned. “What happens when you put this in the snowy areas of Saskatchewan and what happens when there is freezing rain?”

Another query: what occurs when cities will not welcome the robots?

Tiny Mile, an organization behind a collection of pink, heart-eyed robots named Geoffrey, is aware of the reply.

Years after Geoffrey began making Toronto deliveries for supply companies like Foodora, Lepofsky and others argued individuals could also be impeded by stopped or stalled gadgets or unable to shortly detect their presence.

Toronto’s metropolis council voted final December to ban the gadgets that run on something however muscle energy from sidewalks, bike paths and pedestrian methods till the province implements a pilot venture for such gadgets.

Geoffrey was then noticed in Ottawa earlier than the town confirmed such robots aren’t permitted there both and Tiny Mile decamped from Canada utterly.

“We almost went bankrupt,” mentioned Ignacio Tartavull, Tiny Mile’s chief govt.

“It was basically a miracle we survived.”

To preserve Geoffrey alive, Tiny Mile headed to Florida and North Carolina.

“It was love at first sight,” Tartavull mentioned. “We spoke with cities and they were basically competing for us to go there.”

He believes that adoration will unfold as the price of robotic deliveries — now roughly $1 — sink to 10 cents within the subsequent seven years.

“It’s likely going to take a few years before we have it in the big cities but in the long term, it’s kind of undoubtable because the technology is here, it works and we can deliver on time and at a much lower cost,” he mentioned.

As for Serve, it is centered on Los Angeles proper now, however Kashani mentioned its mission is to get 5 per cent of supply automobiles off the highway within the subsequent 5 years.

“But I definitely hope that if you fast forward one or two decades, these robots would be doing more local transportation of goods… so that we can not rely on cars.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Dec. 4, 2022.