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What do you think about last mile delivery robots? https://www.kiwibot.com https://www.kiwibot.com These little bots don't require the same level of human physi

by fumar 5y ago

What do you think about last mile delivery robots? https://www.kiwibot.com https://www.kiwibot.com These little bots don't require the same level of human physical presence as Uber or DoorDash.

ska 5y ago
> What do you think about last mile delivery robots? I suspect these will need truly significant infrastructure changes to actually function as last mile.
- randycupertino 5y ago
  Agree! If actual human doordash and instacart delivery people can't read the sign or follow instructions to determine our house from the inlaw apartment, I doubt any robot is going to be able to get it done.
Jasper_ 5y ago
They faked the bots. They require human physical presence, and a remote controller. > The Kiwibots do not figure out their own routes. Instead, people in Colombia, the home country of Chavez and his two co-founders, plot “waypoints” for the bots to follow, sending them instructions every five to 10 seconds on where to go. > On the ground in Berkeley, people also do a lot of robot support. Traveling at 1 to 1½ mph, the bots would take too long to chug to local restaurants, so Kiwi workers pick up the food at restaurants and take it via bikes or scooters to meeting spots around campus to insert into an insulated bag in the bots’ storage compartment. > The average distance a robot covers for a delivery is about 200 meters (656 feet, or one-eighth of a mile) which makes them fall short of a “last-mile” solution. From https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Kiwibots-win-fans-at-UC-Berkeley-as-they-deliver-13895867.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Kiwibots-win-fa...
- agentdrtran 5y ago
  This seems comically complex and wasteful compared to the extremely old fashioned "restaurant hires person with a bike" solution.
  - vkou 5y ago
    It is, but you can't get VC funding to subsidize your restaurant's 'person with a bike' hire. Capitalism does not optimize for sustainable global maxima, only local ones - and in this case, the incentives aligned for this to be a local maxima.
  - SkyPuncher 5y ago
    IMO, it's an incredibly valuable "lean" approach. They know that the path finding algorithm isn't the important part right now. The most important thing is proving that the robots can provide the service. These types of path finding algorithms already exist, so it's just a matter of automating and improving margins.
- atleta 5y ago
  Wow, this is space technology then - this is how the earlier Mars rovers used to operate. :)

by fumar 5y ago

What do you think about last mile delivery robots? https://www.kiwibot.com https://www.kiwibot.com These little bots don't require the same level of human physical presence as Uber or DoorDash.

ska 5y ago

> What do you think about last mile delivery robots? I suspect these will need truly significant infrastructure changes to actually function as last mile.

randycupertino 5y ago
Agree! If actual human doordash and instacart delivery people can't read the sign or follow instructions to determine our house from the inlaw apartment, I doubt any robot is going to be able to get it done.

Jasper_ 5y ago

They faked the bots. They require human physical presence, and a remote controller. > The Kiwibots do not figure out their own routes. Instead, people in Colombia, the home country of Chavez and his two co-founders, plot “waypoints” for the bots to follow, sending them instructions every five to 10 seconds on where to go. > On the ground in Berkeley, people also do a lot of robot support. Traveling at 1 to 1½ mph, the bots would take too long to chug to local restaurants, so Kiwi workers pick up the food at restaurants and take it via bikes or scooters to meeting spots around campus to insert into an insulated bag in the bots’ storage compartment. > The average distance a robot covers for a delivery is about 200 meters (656 feet, or one-eighth of a mile) which makes them fall short of a “last-mile” solution. From https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Kiwibots-win-fans-at-UC-Berkeley-as-they-deliver-13895867.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Kiwibots-win-fa...

agentdrtran 5y ago
This seems comically complex and wasteful compared to the extremely old fashioned "restaurant hires person with a bike" solution.
- vkou 5y ago
  It is, but you can't get VC funding to subsidize your restaurant's 'person with a bike' hire. Capitalism does not optimize for sustainable global maxima, only local ones - and in this case, the incentives aligned for this to be a local maxima.
- SkyPuncher 5y ago
  IMO, it's an incredibly valuable "lean" approach. They know that the path finding algorithm isn't the important part right now. The most important thing is proving that the robots can provide the service. These types of path finding algorithms already exist, so it's just a matter of automating and improving margins.
atleta 5y ago
Wow, this is space technology then - this is how the earlier Mars rovers used to operate. :)