A new Uber partnership will bring robot delivery to Uber Eats customers in the Miami area, the company said Thursday. It's teaming up with Cartken, a California-based company that creates self-driving sidewalk robots, to roll out the new delivery program in the Dadeland district.
While this is Cartken's first major partnership, the company's fleet of AI-powered robots have been used in a number of other places, including parts of California, Canada, the UK, Germany, Japan and a handful of US college campuses. The six-wheeled robots can take about two dozen pounds of deliveries on the go and have cameras that help guide them to a destination.
Uber and Cartken will start working with select merchants on Thursday to get the robot delivery system going, with plans to expand to other parts of Miami-Dade County and additional cities in 2023.
"We are excited to bring its residents a little more Uber magic through sidewalk robot delivery," Noah Zych, global head of autonomous mobility and delivery at Uber, said in a press release. "Our partnership with Cartken marks another important milestone for our efforts in automated and autonomous technology and will provide greater reliability and affordability to Miami merchants and consumers."