Food delivery robots (DR) are giving biking couriers a run for their money. Serve Robotics and Coco Robotic each run DRs serving the Chicago area.
The DRs navigate through the city’s sidewalks but recent mishaps involving the bots have raised concern about their safety. Aside from bumping into pedestrians, the DRs recently crashed into glass panels of separate bus stop sheds.
Serve’s bot called “Nasir” smashed at a bus shelter near West Grand and North Racine on 22 March, leaving shards of glass scattered on the sidewalk that the DR tried to roll through, FOX 32 reports.
Coco’s robot was caught by CBS Chicago crashing through another bus stop panel in the Old Town neighborhood, New York Post (NYP) reports.
Serve and Coco quickly cleaned up the mess and were reported saying they would shoulder the repairs, according to NYP.
Meanwhile, a robot entertains diners while they wait for their food at a hotpot restaurant in Cupertino, California.
The bib-wearing bot at HaiDiLao Hotpot dances in the middle of the dining room, waving its mechanical arms from side to side and kicking its legs, KTVU reports.
The video of the dance, reportedly sourced from the poster named @Meooow, also shows chopsticks and a saucer flying from a table nearest to the dancing bot.
It was not part of the robot’s dance routine though, rather the machine began slapping its hands against a table as customers laugh and record the spectacle, according to KTVU.
The two-minute video also shows a staff trying to pull the machine away from the table. When the employee could not move the dancing robot, two more staff members helped to restrain it, which was marching in place, KTVU reports.
Staff members eventually deactivated the machine, stopping it from dancing.