Uber Eats Begins Using Delivery Robots in Tokyo
Food delivery company Uber Eats has begun using self-driving robots to make deliveries in the center of Tokyo.
On March 6, little green robots began delivering food in the area of Nihombashi, but Uber Eats plans to use the robots in more areas in the future.
Uber Eats delivers food to customers from different restaurants, but for now the robots will only be used to collect orders from two restaurants — Tonkatsu Aoki and Benihana Annex.
The robots make deliveries between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays.
Uber Eats Japan said these robots can help with the country's labor shortage.
The robots use artificial intelligence to travel around but they can also be controlled remotely. They have cameras that let them move without hitting things or people.
They can travel at up to 5.4 kilometers per hour and can carry as much as 20 kilograms of food and drink.
Developed with a US company called Cartken and made with the help of Mitsubishi Electric, the 60-centimeter-high robots are insulated to keep food and drinks warm or cold.
The robots can't yet enter buildings to deliver food, so customers must go out onto the street and use their apps to open the robot and take the delivery.
And people aren't able to choose to have a robot deliver their order — the company said it might be a nice surprise to see one arriving!
Uber Eats began using robots to deliver food in the US in 2022.
