Photo: Magna International
Last-mile deliveries are an on-growing trend, which is why companies from all over the world are striving to come up with new, more convenient delivery solutions for urban environments. To that end, Magna International recently introduced its autonomous, purpose-built electric robot that can reduce both carbon emissions and costs.
Magna is a large Canadian supplier for the automotive sector and boasts of being backed up by over 65 years of expertise. Its recently unveiled last-mile delivery solution is a full-stack one that integrates three components: the lightweight, purpose-built, electric robot, Magna’s low-speed, autonomous driving system, and delivery software.
Magna’s robot was revealed at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which is taking place until September 25. But the delivery robot was launched in a pilot program back in March, to deliver pizza for a restaurant in the Detroit area. It delivered hundreds of pizzas both to commercial and residential locations, traveling on public streets, at speeds of up to 20 mph (32 kph).
The robot uses Magna’s autonomous driving system based on LiDAR, radar, cameras, and other hardware. Consumer feedback has constantly helped Magna improve the service along the way. Magna states that for the next phase in its program, it plans to apply the learnings to further refine the solution for a broader range of applications and use cases and to unlock new business models, as explained by Matteo Del Sorbo, Magna’s Executive Vice President.
The pizza delivery robot unveiling comes just a few days after Magna announced that it teamed up with Cartken to manufacture the latter’s Model C autonomous robot, also for delivery purposes. Magna will produce thousands of these machines over the next following years, at its facility in Michigan.
Cartken’s Model C is an autonomous robot designed for both indoor and outdoor use. It has multiple sensors, cameras, and uses machine learning and SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping)-based navigation algorithms.
Magna’s robot was revealed at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which is taking place until September 25. But the delivery robot was launched in a pilot program back in March, to deliver pizza for a restaurant in the Detroit area. It delivered hundreds of pizzas both to commercial and residential locations, traveling on public streets, at speeds of up to 20 mph (32 kph).
The robot uses Magna’s autonomous driving system based on LiDAR, radar, cameras, and other hardware. Consumer feedback has constantly helped Magna improve the service along the way. Magna states that for the next phase in its program, it plans to apply the learnings to further refine the solution for a broader range of applications and use cases and to unlock new business models, as explained by Matteo Del Sorbo, Magna’s Executive Vice President.
The pizza delivery robot unveiling comes just a few days after Magna announced that it teamed up with Cartken to manufacture the latter’s Model C autonomous robot, also for delivery purposes. Magna will produce thousands of these machines over the next following years, at its facility in Michigan.
Cartken’s Model C is an autonomous robot designed for both indoor and outdoor use. It has multiple sensors, cameras, and uses machine learning and SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping)-based navigation algorithms.
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