Photo: Kiwibot
Kiwibot - a last-mile delivery service that has recently completed 150,000 food drop-offs - is an electric semi-autonomous robot designed to operate with minimal human intervention.
And now it may be coming to a city near you. As a matter of fact, only yesterday Kiwibot announced an official expansion into Detroit, Pittsburgh, Miami and San Jose. Each of those four cities will soon have up to 10 of the tiny robots on duty, each one assigned a human supervisor.
The Kiwibot system works by utilizing electric semi-autonomous robots which look a bit like a high-end cooler. To date, Kiwibot has built 400 of these robots since the company launched in 2017. They’ve been deployed on a university campus and in San Jose, CA a year ago.
To keep your food safe from various dangers like pets and people, Kiwibots use a locking door and a system that opens the inner container for loading at a restaurant. Staff then secure the door, which is automatically closed and locked prior to the journey.
As the bots reach their destination, they push out an app notification to allow the unlocking of the inner door so customers can remove the delicious delivery. The bot then closes the door and scoots off for its next task and destination.
Up until now, Kiwibot says they’ve been charging just $3.99 per delivery - and no tip is necessary. That means guilt-free service for the customer.
Kiwibot and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation who helped fund the development of the robots say they hope to provide “more equitable access to food, medication, and other goods,” and add that the plan is to deploy the machines in locations where they can coexist safely with pedestrians, bicycles and vehicle traffic.
According to TechCrunch, the technically sophisticated bots are equipped with a camera and also supported and controlled remotely if necessary by human minders tasked with monitoring as many as three robots remotely.
Interestingly, many of the supervisors operate from Colombia. The company's CEO Felipe Chavez and its cofounder, Sergio Pachón, are Columbian nationals. The pair says that since June of this year alone, Kiwibot devices have covered just over 1,400 miles and collected 20,000 data points for navigation purposes.
The Kiwibot system works by utilizing electric semi-autonomous robots which look a bit like a high-end cooler. To date, Kiwibot has built 400 of these robots since the company launched in 2017. They’ve been deployed on a university campus and in San Jose, CA a year ago.
To keep your food safe from various dangers like pets and people, Kiwibots use a locking door and a system that opens the inner container for loading at a restaurant. Staff then secure the door, which is automatically closed and locked prior to the journey.
As the bots reach their destination, they push out an app notification to allow the unlocking of the inner door so customers can remove the delicious delivery. The bot then closes the door and scoots off for its next task and destination.
Up until now, Kiwibot says they’ve been charging just $3.99 per delivery - and no tip is necessary. That means guilt-free service for the customer.
Kiwibot and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation who helped fund the development of the robots say they hope to provide “more equitable access to food, medication, and other goods,” and add that the plan is to deploy the machines in locations where they can coexist safely with pedestrians, bicycles and vehicle traffic.
According to TechCrunch, the technically sophisticated bots are equipped with a camera and also supported and controlled remotely if necessary by human minders tasked with monitoring as many as three robots remotely.
Interestingly, many of the supervisors operate from Colombia. The company's CEO Felipe Chavez and its cofounder, Sergio Pachón, are Columbian nationals. The pair says that since June of this year alone, Kiwibot devices have covered just over 1,400 miles and collected 20,000 data points for navigation purposes.
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