Food feud

Food delivery is no longer the domain of motorcycle riders.

California-based Coco Robotics rolled out its robo-couriers starting in 2020 to deliver groceries and meals in the cities of Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami.

The remote-controlled machine, the size of a suitcase, can hold several large pizzas or roughly four bags of groceries and moves along at a leisurely five miles per hour on sidewalks. The carts operate in various weather conditions, including snow.

The food car, however, may still fail to deliver orders if it malfunctions, like what happened to one unit in Miami on 15 January.

Local resident Guillermo Dapelo was walking his dog around 8 p.m. when he saw the machine stuck on rail tracks and recorded a speeding train striking and destroying the empty robot, People reports.

Carl Hansen, vice president and head of PR relations at Coco, confirmed the incident to People and explained that the robot experienced a rare hardware failure. No one was hurt in the crash.

Meanwhile, human food couriers also face kinks that hinder their work.

Ankur Thakur, a rider for Zomato, India’s top food delivery app, arrived at his customer’s address at 2:30 a.m. and requested that the latter go downstairs to claim the order.

The customer shouted from their balcony, insisting that the rider walk upstairs and bring the ordered food to their doorstep, NDTV reports.

Thakur told the customer that someone might steal his bike if he left it unattended and asked him to be a little flexible, according to NDTV.

The customer allegedly told him to either deliver the order upstairs or cancel it, NDTV reports.

Thakur recorded himself telling what happened and posted the video on his Instagram.

In the video, the Zomato agent is shown saying, “I have canceled it, and I am now eating it here only.”

The video shows Thakur taking out the order, a piece of gulab jamun, and eating it, adding that he would also eat the biryani inside the box, according to NDTV.

The video, posted on Instagram on 1 January, went viral with 1.2 million views. Commenters were divided, either siding with the customer or the rider.