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Postmates launching delivery robot

December 17, 2018

Los Angeles residents will soon see a delivery robot roving their sidewalks thanks to Postmates launching Serve, an autonomous delivery robot. After analyzing deliveries and interactions and conducting thousands of deliveries, the company said it developed what it called the first autonomous vehicle made completely by an on-demand delivery company.

"We realized we are in a unique position to create an autonomous delivery vehicle with socially aware navigation that understands how to navigate cities while meeting specific customer needs," Postmates co-founder and CEO  Bastian Lehmann, said in the release. "We took a design-first approach with Serve that walks alongside people and fits into our communities. We were able to use data to model how food and goods could move around cities even more efficiently when rovers join our existing fleet of more than 350,000 Postmates. Ultimately, we believe that goods should move through cities at nearly zero cost to consumers."

Serve will be on the job next year in L.A., where the company is working with local governments on a framework that will allow on-demand commerce with public-right-of-way allowance. The full roll-out of Serve will take place over the next 12-months in key U.S. cities, according to the release.

Lehmann said the company was able to create a language that it says will allow "rovers and humans to understand each other's intentions.". 

Some of Serve's features include:

• Socially aware navigation.
• Velodyne Lidar sensor and Nvidia Xavier processor.
• 50-pound carrying capacity. 
• 30-miles-per-charge. 
• Touchscreen and camera-based interaction. 
• Movement and directional signaling via dynamic "eye" lighting and top light ring.