Uber Eats is launching robot deliveries in Japan
CNN
Uber Eats customers in Japan can soon have an autonomous, AI-powered robot deliver their food on the streets of Tokyo.
Uber Eats customers in Japan can soon have an autonomous robot deliver their food on the streets of Tokyo. Uber announced a partnership Tuesday between robotics firm Cartken and Japanese industrial titan Mitsubishi Electric to launch autonomous sidewalk robots that will start delivering Eats orders in parts of Tokyo beginning next month. Japan will be the first international market to have autonomous delivery available on the Uber Eats platform. Japan, however, is no stranger to embracing robot helpers in the hospitality industry, and many popular restaurant chains have been using robot servers for years now. Cartken’s Model C robots will be delivering the food and navigating the sidewalks of Tokyo, and the operations will be supervised by Mitsubishi Electric as part of the partnership. Cartken’s Model C robots use AI and computer vision technologies to navigate their environments. The sidewalk-traversing robots are designed to avoid obstacles, yield to pedestrians, and stop at traffic lights. They travel at roughly the same speed as a walking adult and are fitted with a cargo bin that is designed to keep food at an appropriate temperature during transport.