This Robot Runs Facial Recognition and Can Use an Elevator Just to Deliver Coffee

At the beginning of 2021 the alliance between South Korean manufacturers Hyundai and Kia presented to the world something called DAL-e. That's short for Drive you, Assist you, Link with you-experience (no kidding), but also a term meant to designate a machine designed for "automated customer services."

What that means is the DAL-e was designed to take on the role of messenger in a company's office building or elsewhere, "delivering consistent messages to customers in a more intimate and personal way than conventional robots."

The idea was interesting enough for the two carmakers to continue their research, and the initial robot evolved into something called the DAL-e Delivery. The acronym stands for the same dumb things as before, only this version was capable of delivering not only messages but also small parcels from one company department to another.

And here we are now in the early months of 2024 facing yet another iteration of the robot, a direct evolution of the robot shown in 2022 that also has the ability to bring coffee to where coffee is needed.

The machine is not all that different from what came before, but it is a bit smaller than it previously was (the exact dimensions were not disclosed). Despite its smaller exterior size, its makers say, cargo volume has not shrunk. Quite the opposite, it's now bigger, and the robot can move around a building items weighing as much as 22 pounds (10 kg).

The DAL-e Delivery has been designed as a parcel delivery tool, but it can also carry food and beverages, and that's almost certain to make it very popular with white-collar workers. How popular? Well, considering the machine can deliver no less than 16 cups of coffee in one go, probably very much so.

The robot is not particularly threatening, despite its squarish appearance and rather cold presence, owing to the metal finish. This design is useful, though, as everything that makes it tick (stuff like its motor, steering components, braking, and the tons of sensors it is equipped with) is pretty much hidden from sight.

What office workers do see is an 11.6-inch high-resolution display on which the robot shows the action it is taking at any given time. Details about its destination and status are also shown on this screen, and the machine tops them all off with animated facial expressions. You know, because there's nothing creepy about a square column smiling at you.

The robot's capabilities and hardware setup are not entirely known. Hyundai says the thing has a low center of gravity to prevent it from tipping over and rounded corners so as not to damage anything if it accidentally bumps into stuff.

DAL-e can travel at a top speed of 2.6 mph (4 kph) and it moves about on the office floor completely autonomously, including in highly congested areas (again, its makers provide no details on what it takes for the robot to do that).

All of the above details might sound interesting, but there's nothing really spectacular about them. What comes next, however, is very much so.

So, the DAL-e is a delivery robot. That means someone, somewhere, has to load it up with coffee cups and whatnot and send it on its merry way. That's the easy part, because a human is on deck to assist.

But now the robot has to find its way around a multi story building to find just the right person to deliver the coffee to. And here is where its jaw-dropping abilities come in.

Unlike other robots we've seen, the DAL-e can't climb stairs, but it can use the elevator. Through magic means that haven't been explained, it can interface with the elevator and door control system, moving up and down the building just like humans do.

Once it reaches its destination, DAL-e does not need a code or password input to open its front and push forward the storage tray. Instead, it uses a camera and AI-powered facial recognition to identify the recipient and let him have it, whatever it is.

According to Hyundai and Kia, the facial recognition tech is 99.9 percent accurate, so you don't have to worry about your colleague drinking your coffee or reading your hardcopy mail.

So, the DAL-e has been around in one form or another for three years now, but is it going anywhere, really? It seems it is, as its makers plan to deploy the Delivery version at the IGIS Asset Management's Factorial building in Seoul in the second quarter of the year.

The place has been imagined from the ground up to be an intelligent one, so integration of the robot should not be a problem. And if it works there, the South Koreans are imagining DAL-es doing the rounds in offices, restaurants, and shopping malls all around the world.