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.

Thousands of four-wheeled robots will soon drop off burritos, salads and other food orders placed with Uber Eats. Robotics company Serve has been working with the delivery giant since 2021, and the firms announced Tuesday they are ready to unleash 2,000 self-driving bots in major US cities starting in 2026. The small AI-powered machines can carry up to 50 pounds of merchandise for 25 miles on a single charge, which Serve said is enough power for dozens of deliveries in one day. Select customers who place food orders via the Uber Eats app may receive the option to deliver their orders by a Serve robot. The partnership will provide customers with contact-free deliveries.

A new four-wheeled robot designed to carry anything from parcels and drinks to babies and health monitors, has been developed by Hyundai. The Mobile Eccentric Droid (MobED) robot has a low and flat body that is perfect for'stability and high manoeuvrability' tasks, according to Hyundai. It will be officially unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2022 in January, where it will be shown undertaking tasks in complex and challenging environments. In a promotional video for the device, it can be seen carrying a baby and crossing a hill while loaded with a pyramid of glasses filled with champagne. MobED is 26 inches long, weighs 110lb and would be a useful'mobility device for hte elderly or disabled,' Hyundai explained. No pricing details have been released for the device, and Hyundai is yet to say when it will be commercially available.

Forget about Optimus Prime and Megatron! Swiss experts have developed a four-wheeled robot that can rear up on its hind legs and spin like a performing poodle. Developed by ETH Zürich spin-off Swiss-Mile, the agile bot that can reach speeds of up to 14 mph (23 kph) is the latest iteration of the'ANYMal' robot concept. The design -- which superficially resembles Boston Dynamics' robot dog, Spot -- has previously been shown using its AI to get back up after being kicked over. In a newly-released video, the robot is shown not only performing its standing trick, but also wheeling along and taking ascending and descending steps in its stride. Forget about Optimus Prime and Megatron!

Amazon may soon employ a little robotic helper to assist with delivering packages from vans to a customer's drop-off destination. The firm was awarded a patent earlier this month entitled, 'Directing secondary delivery vehicles using primary delivery vehicles,' which describes its delivery van bringing packages to a customer's drop-off destination and a smaller vehicle carrying it the rest of the way. The van, or primary vehicle, would feature new technology that creates the best path for a small autonomous vehicle, which is then programmed with instructions to travel from the cargo area of the truck to the customer's doorstep. The secondary vehicle would also be equipped with cameras and navigational gear, such as sensors and accelerometers, allowing it to send images and data back to the primary vehicle during its journey. Amazon filed the patent on January 6, 2020, with patent images that show the delivery van traveling to its destinations with packages and the secondary vehicle stowed away in the cargo area.