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Robotics

Sidewalk Robots are Now Delivering Food in Miami (msn.com) 74

Posted by EditorDavid from the faster-food dept.
18-inch tall robots on four wheels zipping across city sidewalks "stopped people in their tracks as they whipped out their camera phones," reports the Florida Sun-Sentinel.

"The bots' mission: To deliver restaurant meals cheaply and efficiently, another leap in the way food comes to our doors and our tables." The semiautonomous vehicles were engineered by Kiwibot, a company started in 2017 to game-change the food delivery landscape...

In May, Kiwibot sent a 10-robot fleet to Miami as part of a nationwide pilot program funded by the Knight Foundation. The program is driven to understand how residents and consumers will interact with this type of technology, especially as the trend of robot servers grows around the country. And though Broward County is of interest to Kiwibot, Miami-Dade County officials jumped on board, agreeing to launch robots around neighborhoods such as Brickell, downtown Miami and several others, in the next couple of weeks... "Our program is completely focused on the residents of Miami-Dade County and the way they interact with this new technology. Whether it's interacting directly or just sharing the space with the delivery bots," said Carlos Cruz-Casas, with the county's Department of Transportation...

Remote supervisors use real-time GPS tracking to monitor the robots. Four cameras are placed on the front, back and sides of the vehicle, which the supervisors can view on a computer screen. [A spokesperson says later in the article "there is always a remote and in-field team looking for the robot."] If crossing the street is necessary, the robot will need a person nearby to ensure there is no harm to cars or pedestrians. The plan is to allow deliveries up to a mile and a half away so robots can make it to their destinations in 30 minutes or less.
Earlier Kiwi tested its sidewalk-travelling robots around the University of California at Berkeley, where at least one of its robots burst into flames. But the Sun-Sentinel reports that "In about six months, at least 16 restaurants came on board making nearly 70,000 deliveries...

"Kiwibot now offers their robotic delivery services in other markets such as Los Angeles and Santa Monica by working with the Shopify app to connect businesses that want to employ their robots." But while delivery fees are normally $3, this new Knight Foundation grant "is making it possible for Miami-Dade County restaurants to sign on for free."

A video shows the reactions the sidewalk robots are getting from pedestrians on a sidewalk, a dog on a leash, and at least one potential restaurant customer looking forward to no longer having to tip human food-delivery workers.
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Sidewalk Robots are Now Delivering Food in Miami More

Sidewalk Robots are Now Delivering Food in Miami

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  • Prototype K.I.T.T. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Ostracus ( 1354233 ) on Sunday June 06, 2021 @09:06PM (#61461096) Journal

    In May, Kiwibot sent a 10-robot fleet to Miami as part of a nationwide pilot program funded by the Knight Foundation.

    One robot can make a difference.

  • yeah this won't last long (Score:3)

    by iggymanz ( 596061 ) on Sunday June 06, 2021 @09:17PM (#61461118)

    the Boston marathon bombers would have been all over this if they had these robots in 2013. Not only for terrorists but what an attractive target for cyberhacking for all manner of nefarious deeds.

    • Pretty easy for them to re-use a remote controlled car. They probably just didn't think of it.

    • Why the need for all the terror and hacking activity. I think the far more common problem will be people just tipping them over - either deliberately or accidentally because the stupid things are too short to get noticed if the street is at all busy but big enough to trip people after which they are likely to get a swift boot.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ranton ( 36917 )

        There are plenty of targets for vandalism and destruction of property already, and most of them do not have four high resolution cameras on them monitoring their surroundings. These robots will probably be fine.

        • Well, assuming it is not an accidental encounter as it zips through pedestrians at knee height, exactly what damage has it suffered by being tipped over? It would be trivially easy to right it. Tipping it over does not damage it - that's why it will be the target of pranksters.

        • There are plenty of targets for vandalism and destruction of property already, and most of them do not have four high resolution cameras on them monitoring their surroundings. These robots will probably be fine.

          Exactly. Not to mention they are monitored live, and (I live in the region), the Brickell area is full of cameras. Vandalism against these bots wouldn't fly undetected.

      • Why the need for all the terror and hacking activity. I think the far more common problem will be people just tipping them over - either deliberately or accidentally because the stupid things are too short to get noticed if the street is at all busy but big enough to trip people after which they are likely to get a swift boot.

        It depends. I live in South Florida, and these would operate well in the Brickell area (which is where they operate.)

        I can see some places in the South Florida Metro area where walkways are just too busy, but this would be ideal in other areas. I don't think I could see this working in pedestrian-heavy NYC.

        However, in places like the one where I live (Weston, on the far end west of the metro area) these puppies would be ideal since we are mostly a commuter city with little pedestrian traffic and the dr

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by hawk ( 1151 )

          > I think the far more common problem will be people just tipping them over

          the Mark II version will simply need to add a self-righting mechanism borrowed from Battlebots . . .

          • > I think the far more common problem will be people just tipping them over

            the Mark II version will simply need to add a self-righting mechanism borrowed from Battlebots . . .

            If the battlebots look like the Daleks, I'd be down for that end of the world scenario.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's inevitable, if not sidewalk robots them drones will be doing it. Companies like Amazon will eventually get drone delivery working, pizza deliver by self driving car has been tested etc.

      Robots are going to become common on our streets and in our skies, and we should start thinking about the potential issues and how to mitigate them. Bombs I don't think are a huge deal, there are plenty of places to hide them already. Make a fake badge and you can probably just walk one in to most places by pretending to

      • I don't order pizza that much, but I can tell you when I do and it comes in a car that can't bring it right to my door I will never order from that place again.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by ranton ( 36917 )

          I don't order pizza that much, but I can tell you when I do and it comes in a car that can't bring it right to my door I will never order from that place again.

          Either there will be some delivery services which still use human drivers to offer that extra level of service for an increased fee, or automated delivery will become ubiquitous enough that you won't have a choice. So you will still get the level of service you desire today or you will need to drive yourself to the restaurant. You won't have any choice on how the market adapts to these new technologies either way.

          • The piza robot will just send you a message from the sidewalk, chuck a frisbee at your door and you better be ready to catch it.

  • Is there a connection to NZ somewhere?

  • Who needs Adafruit ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Sunday June 06, 2021 @09:22PM (#61461128)
    ... when you have a good source for parts rolling right past your feet?

  • But don't forget (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Sunday June 06, 2021 @09:23PM (#61461130)
    We don't have anything to fear from automation. And any minute now thousands of new jobs will be created. Sure nobody can say what those jobs are, or how blue collar employees are going to be capable of doing them. But I'm sure there's absolutely nothing to worry about about putting thousands and thousands if not millions of people out of work. I mean mass unemployment with no safety nets is always been a recipe for social stability right?
    • Given the size of these things they are more than likely disposable, so beyond the jobs to manufacture them (which is probably done by slave labor in China any way) there probably isn't much in the way of jobs after the fact.
      • Hmm, a cardboard pizza box with cardboard wheels, doing self delivery - the innovation will be in the cardboard motor and electronics.

        • Hmm, a cardboard pizza box with cardboard wheels, doing self delivery - the innovation will be in the cardboard motor and electronics.

          Don't forget the cardboard pizza. Although I hear Pizza Hut has this technology nailed already.

      • Given the size of these things they are more than likely disposable, so beyond the jobs to manufacture them (which is probably done by slave labor in China any way) there probably isn't much in the way of jobs after the fact.

        Dude, that's not how it works. Unless these puppies are less than, say, $500 a piece (the price of an entry level school laptop), no one is going to throw these away without having some maintenance on them first.

        These things already require new jobs (people monitoring them, as written in the article.), You'll need people to service them, you'll need people to dispose of them, or lease them. There will be a market for refurbished bots, and an aftermarket for repairs parts. There will be a market for bot le

        • I'm sure a study has already been done noting that the cost to hire people and order the spare parts to repair and upgrade these little garbage haulers far exceeds the cost of just scrapping and replacing. Remember, this is a tech company you are dealing with. People are only considered after every other money making factor.

        • Assuming that you are correct, then what is the benefit of this technology? We're taking an unskilled labour job and replacing it with a new technology chain that requires education. And the whole new parts supply chain likely makes this a net lose for the environment, not a net benefit.

        • Why would they build these robots in the first place? You need a lot fewer mechanics when you have delivery drivers. Also this mechanics are going to be pretty low skilled. Basically a high school shop class. The really complex stuff won't be repaired. We stopped doing electronics repair ages ago. Whether any of us like it or not things are changing. Pretending that isn't happening isn't going to help.
    • On the one hand. Yeah. This industry especially is already made up entirely of people who are desperate for any kind of work, and now they plan to fire even them. On the other hand 1.5 miles in 30 minutes? A human can go 10 miles in the same amount of time just walking, let alone roller blading, biking, scootering, or by car. It's kind of sad really, that a company this shit at robotics is one of the first to enter the market. College students in the 80s could have made a better robot, with 80s technology

      • Whoops bad editing. I originally was only going to compare biking but then changed it and missed the mileage edit.

        And paragraph markup

        Hopefully my points are still understood.

    • We don't have anything to fear from automation. And any minute now thousands of new jobs will be created. Sure nobody can say what those jobs are, or how blue collar employees are going to be capable of doing them. But I'm sure there's absolutely nothing to worry about about putting thousands and thousands if not millions of people out of work. I mean mass unemployment with no safety nets is always been a recipe for social stability right?

      Yeah. It's a good thing we never ended up producing those automobile thingies, right? Imagine all the blacksmiths that would be out of work as the demand for horseshoes had plummeted. And good thing we never implemented those automatic elevators that would have put all the elevator operators out of work. And how many fewer secretaries would we need if desktop computers ever become a thing? And thank God self serve gas stations never caught on!

  • It's good for the environment and OK for you.

  • One of our dogs is maybe 14" high at the shoulder. She tends to hang about my feet when I'm not expecting it, and I find myself tripping over her frequently. So I'm concerned about the tripping hazard these 18-inch-tall robots are going to present on the sidewalks, especially given the preponderance of elderly people in Florida.

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by nospam007 ( 722110 ) *

      "So I'm concerned about the tripping hazard these 18-inch-tall robots are going to present on the sidewalks, especially given the preponderance of elderly people in Florida."

      Elderly people don't use the sidewalks, they drive a 40 year old Cadillac Eldorado.

    • Don't need to trip the person - can just knock their cane away.

    • if my dogs saw one of these, they'd chase it down and kill it.

  • A dog on a leash... hmmm.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sonamchauhan ( 587356 ) <sonamc@gm a i l .com> on Sunday June 06, 2021 @10:12PM (#61461226) Journal

    How long before a dog mistakes a stationary one for a fire hydrant?

    Thus triggering a cascade of other dogs giving it similar treatment.

    Kessler syndrome [wikipedia.org], but with urine.

  • You wonâ(TM)t find me paying for an apartment or house that close to a restaurant. Maybe a pharmacy ⦠but would be nice to see this expand to something more legitimate -- the further they get from their source (charging station, restaurant, etc) the less likely it is to be viable.
  • In Miami, going out involves a checklist with SPF40, water, shades, Sig or the H&K and 3 clips.

  • For quite some time, perhaps two or more decaces, I've thought of something like this to be the ideal companion for shopping.

    When I'm out and about I almost always have a Crumpler [crumpler.eu] or Freitag [freitag.ch] back or backpack on me (and, yes, I'm officially EU Certified Hipster Compliant). I consider cars obscene most of the time and ride around on a bike or an electric scooter, sometimes scates. However, even though I'm still quite fit and agile and all that, at age 51 precisely because of moving a lot, lugging around 15+ k

  • So autonomous but monitored .... uncontrolled but supervised ... I can only see a company about to be sued

  • It won't be long before people begin kicking them, tossing obstacles in their path, sticking gum on their cameras, tipping them over, or cracking them open for the food inside. Because of course it will happen.

  • Fifteen Minute Walk. (Score:3)

    by westlake ( 615356 ) on Monday June 07, 2021 @06:47AM (#61461954)
    Four sandwiches. Range about a mile. For this you need curbside delivery? These robots need perfect summer weather and unobstructed pathways which are pool table flat. That isn't our home ground.

  • This is why we can't have terrible things.

  • Been in the UK for ages (Score:3, Interesting)

    by baabaa ( 6512136 ) on Monday June 07, 2021 @08:23AM (#61462228)
    Similar robots from Starship [starship.xyz] have been operating in Milton Keynes, UK, for a couple of years and have sucessfully completed tens of thousands of deliveries. I can't remeber the last time I took a walk and didn't see one of them pootling around. Seeing them is a non-event now and everyone seems to ignore them and let them get on their way. They are basically never vandalized, or cause issues. In fact, they are so reliable them when they do go wrong they end up in the local news [miltonkeynes.co.uk].

  • Is this just the groundwork for Knight Industries Two Thousand? I guess that might be OK, as long as they don't also make the Knight Automated Roving Robot.

      "Michael, why do you need to socialize with so many women? Wouldn't one be sufficient?"

  • Headline: "Homeless Florida man steals food from robot" in 3...2...1
  • I've seen photos of Miami when they have the really high tides with people wading through water over a foot deep. Will the bots deploy propellers and a rudder? I have no idea how much of Miami gets soaked with those tides as I live at 9,000', so it's not quite the concern up here.

  • It's a new game of hopscotch for elderly pedestrians.

  • I'm surprised that nobody else commented on the last sentence; "...potential restaurant customer looking forward to no longer having to tip human food-delivery workers."

    Not to mention restaurant owners potentially looking forward to no longer having to pay human food-delivery workers, while charging the same (or even a little more) for delivery.

    Gotta keep that money where it belongs.

  • If I pay for having food delivered to my door, it's because the weather is extremely crappy, I'm sick, or another similar reason.

    So I don't want to go outside, I fully expect the food to be delivered in my hands while I open the door.

    I don't think those robots can go up a flight of stairs?

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