The Delivery Robot Revolution Is Not Quite Ready for Primetime

The coronavirus pandemic changed the way businesses of almost all types operate virtually overnight, hurting most and redefining which ones are truly essential in what quickly became the new normal for billions of people around the world. And it brought with it an unexpected kind of acceleration of trends, forcing the closure of businesses that would have struggled on for a few more years, while bringing a global spotlight to technologies that would have remained relatively obscure or experimental for years to come. Market trends that otherwise would have taken years to evolve transformed in a matter of weeks, it seemed, retiring outdated concepts while stretching emerging tech to its limits. One segment suddenly in the spotlight--and that seemingly saw years of demand and market interest explode in a matter of days--is delivery robots, which until the month of March had seen moderate interest from Silicon Valley and some skepticism from the general public. Suddenly, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' comment in 2013 that the company was researching parcel delivery via flying drones went from a pie in the sky whimsy with seemingly few advantages to something that businesses large and small needed in 2020.