If you live in West Hollywood and see a small, pink robot zipping along your sidewalk, you’re not hallucinating.
Pink Dot, a West Hollywood market known for its robust delivery network, has launched robot delivery service to the community using Postmates‘ Serve robots. The three automated servants — dubbed Pinky, Dotty and Solly — are all branded with Pink Dot’s signature colors.
“We just started this on Thursday, and they are already a huge hit,” Pink Dot CEO Sol Yamini said. “These robots are so smart. They know to slow down or pull to the side when people are walking in front of them. They can go up hills, and they’re pretty fast. If I tried to run faster than them I wouldn’t be able to catch them.”
Efficiency aside, the automated delivery vehicles are a novelty among customers and are already generating dozens of daily deliveries.
“It’s like ‘The Jetsons,’ ” Yamini said. “Some people are ordering one bottle of alcohol or one pack of cigarettes just to see the robots.”
Each unit has a range of 2-3 three miles and can hold up to 50 pounds of groceries.
How they work
Shoppers place their orders using the Pink Dot app and have the option of choosing a human or robot to make their deliveries.
When the robot arrives at a house or apartment building, it waits outside and sends a text message alerting the customer that the delivery has arrived. The message includes an electronic code for unlocking the robot’s storage container.
The vehicles are being deployed as a three-month test in West Hollywood and are accompanied by a Pink Dot employee to address any problems that might arise. That will end once the robots are proven to be reliable.
Robot deliveries are currently free of charge, while Pink Dot’s human deliveries run $5-$10.
“Once this works out, Postmates will roll it out on a bigger scale,” Yamini said.
Founded in 1987, Pink Dot employs about 100 workers. The company operates a retail store at 8495 Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood as well as delivery-only locations in East Los Angeles, West Los Angeles, Encino, Malibu, Burbank, Sherman Oaks, Brentwood, Echo Park, Hancock Park and Glendale.
Yamini declined to reveal what Pink Dot is paying to use the robots other than to say it’s expensive, but a “win-win situation.”
Uber acquires Postmates
Uber recently acquired Postmates for $2.65 billion in a move that brings together Uber’s global Rides and Eats platform with Postmates’ delivery business in the U.S.
Uber’s third-quarter earnings report shows the company’s delivery business, which includes Uber Eats, has been its biggest moneymaker during the pandemic. The company’s delivery bookings grew 135% year-over-year, hitting $8.55 billion.
Postmates complements Uber Eats with its different geographic focus and customer demographics, as well as relationships with small- and medium-sized restaurants.
“Uber and Postmates have long shared a belief that platforms like ours can power much more than just food delivery,” Postmates co-founder and CEO Bastian Lehmann said in a statement. “They can be a hugely important part of local commerce and communities — all the more important during crises like COVID-19.”
A 2019 study from Portland State University said Sidewalk Automated Delivery Robots (SADRs) can significantly reduce delivery times, road-vehicle miles traveled and overall costs when compared with conventional deliveries in some scenarios.
But the report warns that they could create sidewalk congestion and potential hazards to pedestrians.
Autonomous delivery is nothing new. In March 2016, Domino’s Pizza unveiled what it claimed to be the world’s first autonomous pizza delivery vehicle. Other companies — including Nuro, Amazon, Starship Technologies, Eliport, AutoX and Robomart — have developed similar vehicles. Some are designed for road use, while others make sidewalk deliveries.
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