Uber rolls out robotic sidewalk delivery in Atlanta
Uber is expanding the reach of a partnership with a provider of delivery robots that traverse sidewalks.
The Uber Eats on-demand delivery subsidiary of Uber is rolling out autonomous delivery robots from Serve Robotics, which was spun off from Uber as an independent company in 2021, in the Atlanta metro area.
Serve has an agreement to deploy up to 2,000 delivery robots on the Uber Eats platform across multiple U.S. markets and has been fulfilling select orders in the Los Angeles metro area since 2022, including a partnership launched with Shake Shack in 2024. Additional U.S. markets are expected to be announced in the coming months.
“Today’s announcement with Serve Robotics marks our first entry with autonomous delivery in Atlanta,” said Megan Jensen, head of autonomous delivery operations at Uber. “We continue to drive innovation with a commitment to making food delivery as convenient as possible.”
In recent weeks, Serve’s autonomous delivery robots have rolled onto the sidewalks of the Midtown, Old Fourth Ward and Downtown Atlanta neighborhoods. The robots are integrated into the Uber Eats app, and customers who order from participating Atlanta restaurants including Shake Shack may receive a robotic delivery.
"As one of the largest and fastest-growing markets in the Southeast, Atlanta is a strategic next step for our planned nationwide expansion,” said Dr. Ali Kashani, CEO and co-founder of Serve Robotics. “We are pleased to be one of the first robotics companies to enter the market and bring our friendly approach to robotic delivery."
Uber makes inroads in robotic delivery
The continuing collaboration with Serve is the latest step in Uber’s longstanding push to deliver food via autonomous vehicles. Uber Eats has been piloting emissions-free Coco Robotics sidewalk robots in Miami and Los Angeles.
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.
