Robots are now doing food deliveries

Much attention has been paid to flying delivery robot prototypes from Amazon and Google, but a San Francisco startup called Marble just released a product that — while a bit less futuristic — could turn out to win the robot delivery wars. Marble has built a fleet of slow-rolling, washing-machine-size robots that are now doing food deliveries in San Francisco’s Mission District. The robots do the same job as human delivery people: They roll to a restaurant, pick up the food, and then roll along sidewalks to the customer. When the robot pulls up in front of the delivery address, the customer enters a PIN to open the robot’s cargo area and take out the food. The technology is still very much a work in progress. Initially, Marble will send a human minder to walk alongside the robot, eliminating any potential cost savings from this approach. The robots are also monitored at all times by a remote operator who follows along via video camera. Plus, the robot is rather bulky — if these become commonplace, it’s easy to imagine sidewalks being clogged with delivery robots.