UberEats is to trial autonomous vehicle and robot deliveries in Los Angeles.
The food delivery app launched their plans for testing their driverless deliveries while at a product event at Go/Get 2022 in partnership with Serve Robotics and Motional - an AV fleet provider - after being hinted at in late 2021.
The plans - which will begin this week in collaboration with a selection of local outlets - centre around deliveries in West Hollywood for the robots and can stretch as far as Santa Monica for the vehicle drop-offs, which according to California state law will have a driver operating them.
Customers will be able to choose at checkout if they would like their food delivered by an autonomous vehicle, track the package and get a notification and a passcode to get your wares.
An Uber spokesperson told TechCrunch: “We'll be able to learn from both of those pilots what customers actually want, what merchants actually want and what makes sense for delivery as we start to integrate our platform with AV companies. The hope is that they're successful and that we learn over the coming months, and then figure out how to scale."
Customers will have to pay deliveries for both Motional and Uber, for delivery and food.
The spokesperson explained: “Motional and Uber expect that certain delivery fees which might normally be applicable may not be charged during this initial phase.”
