A new joint venture between Serve Robotics’ sidewalk-carrying robots and Alphabet’s Wing flying drone service will run a dual test race. Both tech companies hope that drones flying and on the pavement can cover areas where their counterpart can’t and speed up delivery times.
TechCrunch Serve Robotics and Wing will begin deliveries in Dallas in the coming months, he said. The test will include a select number of customer orders delivered by a combination of sidewalk robots and flying drones.
One of the biggest challenges for drone delivery is coverage. Flying drones can only travel a certain distance from his headquarters. Drones on pavements may have difficulty navigating densely populated areas and certain rocky terrain. Drone companies often have to upgrade their capabilities to overcome these distances and obstacles.
The idea behind Serve Robotics and Wing is to use both types of robots to deliver orders to cover areas that traditional delivery services cannot. The road-based Service bot takes the order from the restaurant and transports the food to the Auto Loader. Wing dronea flying drone that can carry five pounds and fly at speeds of up to 65 miles per hour takes the order and completes the delivery.
It is not known which restaurants or merchants will participate in the test, the areas in Dallas where the drones will deliver orders, and any post-test plans for the new drone delivery fleet. Serve Robotics already delivers to 300 restaurants in Los Angeles. Wing also works with and is involved with Walmart in Dallas Pilot program with DoorDash and Wendy’s in Virginia.
Correction, October 2, 2024, 1:00 PM ET: This story originally reported that Serve Robotics is an Uber company. Originally, Serve Robotics was part of Uber, but became an independent company a few years ago. Sorry for the mistake.
