Robots hit the streets as demand for food delivery grows Part 2

Continued from Part 1… The robots have drawbacks that limit their usefulness for now. They’re electric, so they must recharge regularly. They’re slow, and they generally stay within a small, pre-mapped radius. They’re also inflexible. A customer can’t tell a robot to leave the food outside the door, for example. And some big cities with crowded sidewalks, like New York, Beijing and San Francisco, aren’t welcoming them. But Bill Ray, an analyst with the consulting firm Gartner, says the robots make a lot of sense on corporate or college campuses, or in communities with wide sidewalks. Delivery companies are also jumping into the market. Grubhub recently partnered with Russian robot maker Yandex to deploy 50 robots on the campus of Ohio State University in the state’s capital, Columbus. Grubhub plans to add more campuses soon, although the company stresses that the service won’t go beyond colleges for now. U.S. delivery orders jumped 66% in the year ending in June, according to NPD, a data and consulting firm. And delivery demand could remain elevated even after the pandemic eases because customers have gotten used to the convenience. That has many restaurants looking to solve the labor shortage with robot delivery. “There is no store in the country right now with enough delivery drivers,” said Dennis Maloney, senior vice president and chief digital officer at Domino’s Pizza. Domino’s is partnering with Nuro, a California startup whose self-driving pods go at a top speed of 25 mph (40 kph) on streets. Nuro is testing grocery and food delivery in Houston, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; and Mountain View, California. (AP) This article was provided by The Japan Times Alpha.