Robots? Some Companies Find Only Humans Can Do the Job

Companies have been trying out automatons to serve food in restaurants, make home deliveries or do chores in stores, partly in hopes of easing the worker shortage. Among the disenchanted, FedEx Corp. said last month it was powering down Roxo, its last-mile delivery robot, to prioritize several "nearer-term opportunities," a spokeswoman said. Inc. said it was ending field tests of Scout, its home-delivery robot, after learning that some aspects of its "unique delivery experience" weren't "meeting customers' needs," a company spokeswoman said. And over the summer, DoorDash Inc. said it was shutting down its Chowbotics business -- best known for Sally, the salad-making robot -- roughly 18 months after buying it. "While we gained valuable insights into how to better serve this market, we concluded our current approach was not meeting our very high thresholds for continued investment," a DoorDash spokesman said.