But will it ask for a tip?
An artificially intelligent, self-driving delivery vehicle is the latest in robotic technology soon coming to streets near you — even as other autonomous automakers face probes over dangers with their vehicles.
Tech company Vayu Robotics’ entry in the running is a sky-blue colored, mini Volkswagen van-looking machine — capable of driving up to 20 miles per hour while lugging up to 100 pounds of goods.
On Tuesday, an unnamed “large e-commerce player” inked a deal to deploy 2,500 of the six-foot-long “Vayu One” robots, the company with senior leadership coming from Apple and Lyft announced.
A video demonstration of the self-driving device depicts a store worker stocking up the blue bot — it followed her down the aisles — before sending groceries en route to a customer’s home, navigating potholes, crosswalks and all.
Occasionally, a side door opens as Vayu One’s mechanical arm leaves the goods streetside.
The big-to-do over this particular piece of tech is that its AI model is reportedly sharp enough to eliminate the need for industry-common “light detection and ranging” (Lidar) that pre-maps the Earth’s surface and texture.
Vayu One “operates autonomously without pre-mapping the roads it intends to drive on,” per the company.
The bot also “is capable of navigating inside stores, on city streets, and unloading packages on driveways or porches.”
CEO Anand Gopalan said this new technology has provided answers to problems that “plagued” the development of delivery bots for more than a decade.
Now, companies can “finally create a solution that can actually be deployed at scale and enable the cheap transport of goods everywhere,” he said.
