Uber Eats uses four-wheeled robots to handle the final stretch of food delivery. If you've ordered food on Uber Eats recently, you may have seen a delivery robot instead of a human driver. Uber has partnered with Avride to bring autonomous robots to the streets. They already operate in several U.S. cities, and your area could be next. Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy Report Get my best tech tips, urgent security alerts, and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox.

Autonomous delivery vehicle company Avride has a fresh design -- and NVIDIA AI brains. The company's engineers have swapped out the old six-wheel configuration for a more efficient four-wheel chassis. It can make 180-degree turns almost instantly, effortlessly park on inclines and move faster without compromising safety. Avride has been working on autonomous delivery robots since 2019. It began as part of Russian tech company Yandex's autonomous driving wing. But the spun-off company divested its Russian assets after Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and rebranded as Avride.

Uber has entered a new deal to offer customers in select cities an option for self-driving vehicles. The partnership is with Avride, which used to be the self-driving unit for Russian conglomerate Yandex. The multi-year deal will begin by introducing Avride's self-driving robots as a delivery option for Uber Eats orders in Austin, Texas. Later this year, the robots are expected to become available for delivery orders in Dallas and Jersey City, New Jersey. Autonomous driving is slated to begin service for Uber ride requests in Dallas in 2025. It will only be an option for "qualifying orders" on either Uber or Uber Eats, but the company didn't specify what those qualifications are.