A new joint venture between Serve Robotics sidewalk delivery robots and Alphabet's Wing flying drone service will do a dual test run. Both tech companies hope that flying and sidewalk drones can cover areas its counterpart can't and speed up delivery times. TechCrunch reported that Serve Robotics and Wing will start making deliveries in Dallas sometime in the coming months. The test will include a select number of customer orders being delivered by a combination of sidewalk robots and flying drones. One of the biggest challenges for drone delivery is coverage.

Footage captured by a food delivery robot in Los Angeles was used to arrest and convict two people after a failed attempt to steal it off the street earlier this year, according to 404 Media. Serve Robotics, which works with Uber Eats for last-mile deliveries in the area, shared videos of the incident with the Los Angeles Police Department both proactively and after a subpoena. Serve previously met with LAPD to "open a line of communication" between the two ahead of any potential troubles, emails obtained by 404 also show. It comes at a time when public wariness around the technology is already high, with concerns about just how much the robots are recording and where that footage ultimately goes. Serve Robotics CEO Ali Kashani boasted about the resulting convictions on social media, tweeting, "Some genius once tried to steal one of our robots… It didn't end well (for them)."

Dean Apostolopoulos is the man behind Uber's autonomous robots, but his goal of a driverless delivery is about more than food.

Video of a sidewalk delivery robot crossing yellow caution tape and rolling through a crime scene in Los Angeles went viral this week, amassing more than 650,000 views on Twitter and sparking debate about whether the technology is ready for prime time. It turns out the robot's error, at least in this case, was caused by humans. The video of the event was taken and posted on Twitter by William Gude, the owner of Film the Police LA, an LA-based police watchdog account. Gude was in the area of a suspected school shooting at Hollywood High School at around 10 a.m. when he captured on video the bot as it hovered on the street corner, looking confused, until someone lifted the tape, allowing the bot to continue on its way through the crime scene. A food delivery robot forces it's way across a police crime scene.

A self-driving food delivery robot did not take kindly to the yellow caution tape surrounding a crime scene in Los Angeles as it plowed through the area, according to a video shared on Twitter Tuesday. William Gude is the owner of Film the Police LA, a watchdog Twitter account documenting police activity in the Los Angeles area. Gude was on the perimeter of a suspected shooting at Hollywood High School at approximately 10 a.m. PDT when he saw a food delivery robot rolling down the sidewalk, approaching the yellow caution tape delineating the crime scene. "I just saw it coming and I couldn't believe what I was seeing," Gude told Gizmodo on the phone.

Serve Robotics, an Uber spinout that builds sidewalk delivery robots, is deploying its next generation of robots that are capable of completing some commercial deliveries without a human in the loop, according to the startup. That means in certain operational design domains, or geofenced areas, Serve won't be relying on remote operators to teleassist robots or followers to trail behind the robots for safety. Most companies in the industry, like Coco, Starship Technologies and Kiwibot, lean on remote operators to monitor autonomous deliveries and take over driving in case the robot stops or needs help, so Serve's milestone is indeed a step toward progress in robotic deliveries. "The problem we have solved is that relying on teleoperation for safety means you must count on 100% reliable LTE networks and 100% mistake-free operators, both of which are impossible to achieve consistently," Ali Kashani, co-founder and CEO of Serve, told TechCrunch. "Consider what happens when a safety situation requires human attention, but the video is delayed or the connection has dropped? With Level 4 robots, humans are not needed to be in the loop to ensure safety."

The autonomous sidewalk delivery company, Serve Robotics, has announced the deployment of its next-generation delivery robots, becoming the first autonomous vehicle company to complete commercial deliveries at Level 4 autonomy. The achievement is the result of nearly five years of work by the Serve Robotics team and represents a major step forward for the autonomous vehicle industry, significantly lowering the barriers for autonomous delivery at scale. The Level 4 autonomy means the Serve Robotics' latest generation of robots are able to operate routinely without human intervention and can rely on their onboard capabilities to ensure safe operation. The robots are equipped with an extensive array of technologies that ensure the highest degree of safety by utilizing multiple layers of redundant systems for critical navigation functions. This includes multiple sensor modalities – active sensors such as lidar and ultrasonics and passive sensors such as cameras – to navigate safely on busy city sidewalks.

The self-driving robots are the result of five years of research and development, and they represent a major advancement for delivery services. To create the next-gen robots with level 4 autonomy, Serve Robotics has worked on several features such as automated emergency braking, vehicle collision avoidance, and fail-safe mechanical braking. Designed to resemble a futuristic shopping cart, the latest Serve robot developed by the company measures 30 inches (76 cm) in length and it's 21 inches (53-cm) wide and a height of 40" (101.6 cm). It has a 50 lb (23 kg) storage capacity, and it can get around on four wheels with the help of its "eyes" (which are actually cameras). Together with active sensors such as lidar and ultrasonics, the robot can safely navigate on busy city sidewalks without bumping into pedestrians or objects. Serve's technical breakthrough was possible with support from key tech partners, including NVIDIA and Ouster. The AI computing platform required for robots to perceive their diverse surroundings in real-time is powered by the NVIDIA Jetson, while the machines' self-driving capabilities are enabled by Ouster's 3D lidar sensors. "I'm proud that Serve Robotics has achieved Level 4 autonomy, which further enhances public safety by significantly reducing the potential for human error.

Quadrupeds are leaving the lab and entering the workplace, and the ongoing labor shortages plaguing many industries has only intensified the need. We've seen strong interest for Spot around industrial use cases where mobile robots can navigate worksites that include stairs, doors and other obstacles that would foil wheeled or tracked robots. Our customers are using Spot as a dynamic sensing platform to collect reliable, repeatable data around their sites for tasks like thermal anomaly detection in industrial manufacturing, radiation mapping in nuclear facilities and digital twin modeling on construction sites. Products like Spot are proving they can add real value in the real world. What will 2022 bring for these categories?

Uber is spinning off Postmates' autonomous delivery division into a separate startup called Serve Robotics. The company inherited the unit when it acquired Postmates last year for $2.65 billion. According to Bloomberg, Uber will invest approximately $50 million in a Series A financing round that will make the company a minority stakeholder in Serve Robotics. The startup will operate independently of its former parent. However, it will maintain a close relationship with the company through a partnership that will see its sidewalk robots deliver groceries and other essentials to Uber customers.