After piloting autonomous robot food deliveries in Miami, Uber Eats is now using the sidewalk robots for limited deliveries in Fairfax, Virginia’s Mosaic District.
Uber is partnering with AI-powered robotics company Cartken for the deliveries.
There are more than 40 restaurants in the Mosaic District, although just a handful are currently signed up for the Uber Eats robot deliveries, including Our Mom Eugenia, Pupatella and RASA.
“Cartken is at an inflection point, where we are rapidly bringing our AI, computer vision and lidar-less autonomous robots to more places, like the Mosaic District, in partnership with Uber Eats,” said Cartken co-founder Anjali Jindal Naik.
Developer EDENS, the owner and operator of the Mosaic District, is enthusiastic about the robots.
“We are excited to partner with Uber Eats and Cartken to bring cutting-edge technology o our community, and confident this innovative service will elevate visitor experience and customer engagement at Mosaic,” said Greg Dercach, vice president of property management at EDENS.
Oakland, California-based Cartken was founded in 2019 by former Google engineers. Its backers include Vela Partners and Incubate Fund.
The company already has an established partnership with Grubhub for sidewalk robot deliveries on dozens of college campuses.
