On Monday, Uber
The pilot is part of a partnership with tech startups Serve Robotics and Motional, which manufacture sidewalk-driving robots and autonomous vehicles. Uber Eats customers in the Los Angeles area will have the option to pick a robot or autonomous car in place of a human driver for orders in the coming weeks.
Serve's sidewalk-capable robots will be deployed in West Hollywood to deliver over short distances. In contrast, Motional's cars will be used for larger orders in Santa Monica.
"We'll be able to learn from both of those pilots what customers actually want, what merchants actually want and what makes sense for delivery as we start to integrate our platform with AV companies," an Uber spokesperson told TechCrunch. "The hope is that they're successful and that we learn over the coming months, and then figure out how to scale."
Uber's push to automate its business model has been a long-term plan. For several years, the company has openly discussed its desire to utilize drones and autonomous vehicles. Serve Robotics, which began as a subsidiary of Postmates specializing in robotic food delivery, and Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai
Uber is far from the only company to pilot autonomous delivery; aside from Amazon's
Uber investors didn't seem overly moved by the company's autonomous ambitions nor its other announcements, with shares remaining essentially flat through the beginning of the week. Uber shares slid 3% on Monday, recovering 1.7% by noon Tuesday.