Uber brings robotic sidewalk delivery pilot to Miami
Uber continues expanding its partnership with a provider of delivery robots that traverse sidewalks.
The Uber Eats on-demand delivery subsidiary of Uber is launching a pilot of emissions-free Coco Robotics sidewalk robots in the Wynwood and downtown neighborhoods of Miami.
Uber Eats plans to expand the Coco robotic delivery service to Brickell and Miami Beach in the coming months, as well as other areas of the city throughout 2025. Through this partnership, customers will be able to receive their orders via emissions-free robots.
This initiative follows up an Uber Eats pilot of Coco sidewalk robots that started in Los Angeles in August 2024 and has completed more than 500,000 deliveries since it began operations.
"Autonomous delivery is a key part of our vision for the future of delivery," said Megan Jensen, head of autonomous delivery operations at Uber. "Coco's proven track record and their focus on creating great customer experiences makes them an ideal partner as we expand and continue to popularize robot delivery."
When customers order through Uber Eats from participating retailers in serviceable areas, they may have their orders fulfilled by Coco autonomous delivery robots. Customers who receive deliveries via the robots will have their tips refunded.
"Our expansion launch with Uber Eats marks a milestone in our mission to create a more sustainable and efficient delivery ecosystem," said Zach Rash, co-founder and CEO of Coco Robotics. "Miami's vibrant food and tech scene make it the perfect market for robotic delivery."
Uber makes inroads in robotic delivery
The continuing collaboration with Coco is the latest step in Uber’s longstanding push to deliver food via autonomous vehicles. Shake Shack recently began rolling out sidewalk delivery robots in partnership with Serve Robotics and Uber Eats, which has been offering Serve's autonomous deliveries in Los Angeles since 2022.
Serve was spun off from Uber as an independent company in 2021. It has an agreement to deploy up to 2,000 delivery robots on the Uber Eats platform across multiple U.S. markets.)
Uber Eats also has an automated delivery partnership with self-driving robot provider Cartken in the Miami and Fairfax, Virginia markets. In September 2022, Uber teamed up with autonomous vehicle manufacturer Nuro to let Uber Eats consumers order meals and goods delivered by Nuro’s zero-occupant autonomous delivery vehicles, which run on public roads and are built specifically to carry food and other goods.
And in May 2022, the company announced it was conducting two separate pilots of two different autonomous delivery vehicles in the Los Angeles area, including Motional all-electric, self-driving Ioniq 5 “robotaxis” as well as Serve Robotics delivery robots.
[READ MORE: Uber launches two autonomous delivery pilots]
Uber Eats leverages Uber’s technology and logistics capabilities to partner with 825,000 retailers in more than 11,000 cities globally, with an average delivery time the company says is under 30 minutes.
