The Scramble for Delivery Robots Is On and Startups Can Barely Keep Up

Earlier this week, a pair of sleek, four-wheeled robots began trundling across the cracked pavement outside the Sleep Train Arena, the defunct former home of the Sacramento Kings, which the state of California has turned into a field Covid-19 hospital. The robots, dubbed R2, were supposed to be delivering groceries to residents of a wealthy neighborhood in Houston, part of a rollout by the Mountain View, Calif.-based startup Nuro. Instead, like other robots the world over, they have been pressed into service delivering goods...