– Serve Robotics Inc., an autonomous sidewalk delivery company, and Wing Aviation LLC, an on-demand drone delivery provider, have announced a pilot partnership to expand eco-friendly, autonomous food delivery offering a novel solution that will redefine last mile delivery.
In the coming months, select Wing deliveries will be picked up by a Serve delivery robot from the restaurant’s curbside and delivered to a Wing drone AutoLoader a few blocks away, for aerial delivery to customers as much as 6 miles away.
By leveraging the strengths of both technologies, Serve and Wing will enable faster, safer and more reliable delivery.
Robot-to-drone delivery will enable merchants to tap into drone delivery without any changes to their facilities or workflow and significantly extend the delivery area for sidewalk delivery robots. This collaboration represents an important step towards enabling highly automated delivery as the preferred mode of delivery for the millions of small packages delivered every day around the world.
“We’re excited to partner with Wing to offer a multi-modal delivery experience that expands our market from roughly half of all food deliveries that are within 2 miles of a restaurant, to offering 30 minute autonomous delivery across an entire city,” said Dr. Ali Kashani, CEO and co-founder of Serve Robotics. “Together, Serve and Wing share an ambitious vision for reliable and affordable robotic delivery at scale. Our end-to-end robotic delivery solution will be the most efficient mode for the significant majority of deliveries.”
“At Wing, we have been delivering food and other goods directly to consumers for over five years, completing more than 400,000 commercial deliveries across three continents. We have a proven ability to make deliveries quickly and efficiently,” said Adam Woodworth, CEO at Wing. “Both Wing and Serve offer innovative solutions that are changing the way goods are delivered. Through this pilot partnership, Wing hopes to reach more merchants in highly-congested areas while supporting Serve as it works to expand its delivery radius.”
A Wing drone hovers at the AutoLoader, where it will pick up a delivery from a Serve robot for aerial delivery.
Robot to drone delivery offer benefits to both merchants and customers, including:
- Fast: Wing drones fly above the gridlock and Serve robots operate exclusively on sidewalks, so deliveries avoid being snarled in street traffic.
- Cost Efficient: Drones and robots both lower delivery costs for the operator and consumer with no need for tipping.
Environmentally-Conscious: Both fully-electric, Wing and Serve reduce vehicle emissions associated with food delivery, as well as reducing traffic and congestion. - Safe: By keeping vehicles off the roads, Serve and Wing help to cut down on traffic accidents.
- Convenient: Curbside robotic package pickup allows merchants to access drone delivery without modifying their facilities or installing new equipment.
About Serve RoboticsServe Robotics develops advanced, AI-powered, low-emissions sidewalk delivery robots that endeavor to make delivery sustainable and economical. Spun off from Uber in 2021 as an independent company, Serve has completed tens of thousands of deliveries for enterprise partners such as Uber Eats and 7-Eleven. Serve has scalable multi-year contracts, including a signed agreement to deploy up to 2,000 delivery robots on the Uber Eats platform across multiple U.S. markets.
Source: Serve Robotics