Shake Shack, Serve Robotics roll out autonomous sidewalk robot delivery in Los Angeles

Serve Robotics

14/08/2024 16:38

Aug 14 (Reuters) - Fast-food chain Shake Shack  SHAK.N 
and Serve Robotics  SERV.O  are partnering to use autonomous
sidewalk robots to deliver orders placed on Uber Eats, the
companies said on Wednesday. 
    The partnership will cover select Shake Shack restaurants in
Los Angeles, the companies added.  
    
    
    WHY IT'S IMPORTANT 
    Uber's  UBER.N  food delivery arm has been offering Serve's
autonomous deliveries in Los Angeles since 2022 and is focused
on tapping more geographies across the U.S.
    For Serve, the tie-up with Shake Shack would speed up its
efforts to achieve its target of deploying up to 2,000
AI-powered sidewalk delivery robots on the Uber platform in
2025. 
    
    
    CONTEXT
    Restaurants, retailers and other consumer-facing companies
have been ramping up testing and roll-outs of technologies
including robots, drones and self-driving cars, in a bid to cut
down on delivery costs through automation. 
    Uber is also investing in autonomous technologies for its
ride-sharing and food delivery operations, striking partnerships
with companies, including Alphabet's  GOOGL.O  Waymo, as
companies bet on the potential of autonomous driving systems.
    
    MARKET REACTION 
    Shares of Serve Robotics, spun off from Uber in 2021, jumped
nearly 30% in morning trade on Wednesday. 
    The company, which has partnerships with retailers such as
7-Eleven, late on Tuesday reported a more than seven-fold
increase in revenue to $0.47 million for the second quarter
ended June 30.
    
    
    

 (Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj
Kalluvila)
 ((DeborahMary.Sophia@thomsonreuters.com;))