Charlotte, North Carolina, is seeing the implementation of a pilot to use pink pavement-based robots to make food and coffee deliveries.
Robotics company Tiny Mile first deployed the bots in April, when Charlotte city leaders announced a partnership with the firm to trial coffee deliveries.
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On the decision to move the robots uptown from the initial pilot area, Omar Elawi, business development manager, Tiny Mile, said: “Because it’s so busy it’s a high visibility area, because there’s a lot of small businesses and restaurants.
“Jeffery, as the robots are called, is equipped with heart-shaped eyes that will blink at you.
“If you listen closely, the robot will also say hello.
“These robots can drive around all on their own…they’re respectful to the pedestrian lights, to the traffic lights, to pedestrians along the sidewalk with them.”
The robots work when users open the associated app, insert their pickup and drop off address and are given a recipient number and pick up number. The robot then shows up with the ordered goods. Packages can be placed into the robots and a phone can be used to track the bot and unlock its lid.
The company has clarified that the robots won’t be a replacement for human deliver workers.
“These robots generate more jobs than they take away,” Elawi said.
“You need an operator, a dispatcher, engineers, technicians…there’s a lot that goes into operating these little robots, so it’s maybe shifting jobs, but not taking them away.”
As of now, there are reportedly eight to 10 of the pink robots operating in uptown Charlotte, with Tiny Mile suggesting it will deploy more if the trial proves successful.
