The first wave of urban robots is here | Challengers
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2024
- The robot takeover is here - and it’s kinda cute.
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Back in 2017, Serve Robotics co-founder and CEO, Dr. Ali Kashani, saw a problem with how reliant we are on cars.
Not only do we move large items, like dining tables with cars, but we also move small items, like our dinner deliveries with cars. This system isn’t just incredibly inefficient, but it creates emissions, traffic, and unnecessary accidents. But could this problem could be solved with a small, cute robot?
To help reduce our reliance on cars, Ali created a fully-autonomous sidewalk bot that is used to deliver small items like our dinner deliveries. Serve's goal is to take 5% of food deliveries off the road in the next five years. That would be about 100,000 vehicles just in the U.S.
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Read more of our stories on robots:
Humanoid robots are waking up - and they look eerily real
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Boston Dynamics’ warehouse robots are taking over
► www.freethink.com/technology/...
Caltech’s walking robot can also fly and skateboard
► www.freethink.com/technology/...
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What do you think about having delivery robots?
Well, if you do it in third world country, it'll be gone in seconds.
Great idea but people will destroy, damage, steal from, or just steal the entire robot
terrifying prospect with capitalism. imagine the amount of data their cameras can process and sell. privacy is already in a precarious situation: without data protection laws shxt like this will be misused to create a surveillance corpocracy. innit great when your health insurance goes up bc a delivery bot saw you jaywalking
@@fallenaspie The ultimate consequence of privacy is total stagnation of innovation and disconnection. Fools such as yourself cause it. Consequently, I hope that it continues to monitor me; the more that observes the world, the more information that is provided to remediate the problems that afflict humanity.
I expect that they shall be destructed and their content stolen. Additionally, this is inefficient for anywhere that provides delivery of many meals simultaneously, such as cities. Its sole niche shall be autonomous delivery of food within rural provinces, but I do not expect that it shall be adopted within those regions. Ultimately, I expect that it is doomed for failure.
Conceptually we all have visions of what the future could look like but as a few people have commented already, space on sidewalks, vandalism, tampering, & theft, even with flying drones, are a huge reality that would likely see these fail after the novelty wore off.
A more realistic approach would be utilising these in places like nursing homes & hospitals. They could transport samples from the patient's bed direct to the lab autonomously, take bio-hazard waste to a safe space for immediate disposal, and deliver medications so they arrive at the same time medical staff arrive at the patient's room during medical staff round.
this. in a much more contained environment, these are indispensable.
I think this depends on the area. Cities that traditionally more controlled like Singapore, Shanghai, or Tokyo could minimize potential of third-party problem.
Hospital delivery robots have existed for over ten years, ones very similar to this. They are usually used to deliver medications, but can be used for other things too. The thing you described, that exists. It doesn't work for certain time sensitive things, but it can do many other routine delivery functions.
The problem is, that its ALREADY BEEN DONE lol.
Warehouses already are pretty automated and have these robots running around keeping stuff in stock.
I know that some hospitals in the US already have something similar already.
I live in a large US city. During the beginning of the pandemic we saw a few of these, similar not the same, crossing the street to a university dorm area as well as arriving and leaving a grocery store. I've got pictures of the lil WALL-E fellas. Must have been a test period or a failure as I haven't seen them in a while.
There's a number of different companies that are working on them, so it could have been an earlier model or another company's bot. A pilot study or failure do seem like the most likely explanations.
I believe the monetization potential for these is low because R&D costs are high. If you charge the same delivery fee as a human driver and pass the profit to the robot owning company, that company will turnover a little less than 30k a year per robot (because robots are slower, limited in range, etc). That's very slow profits. And it can't be expanded multiplicatively as there are only so many deliveries within range of these robots.
@@fark69 Seeing the low payment a human gets for these delivery services, I somewhat doubt, that they will ever be able to compete with an (e)bike delivery service.
security of the robots should be make a priority. if these robots just going on in a city like that, they will be smashed empty robots by the end of it
It's a great question. Some of the ways that delivery robot companies are addressing this are having the compartment locked until the customer unlocks it with their mobile app, and having cameras--and people--that are monitoring for theft or vandalism. It may also help that the devices at the moment just deliver food, so the hassle and risk of stealing and destroying one to get a free burrito (almost certainly cold by then...) may simply not be worth it. Time will tell, though!
Ah but that opens up a whole other can of worms. You see, my right of way must never be blocked and a robot must never make physical contact with me or otherwise fire a projectile or emit anything that is injurious to me. That rules out pretty much every conceivable active countermeasure a robot might have, such as tasers, chemical sprays, high-decibel siren etc. Because even when I'm not the attacker, I could be a bystander who is affected. But also because your robot might not be welcome on my property and I'm expediting its departure. What if I'm hurt by your robot just because I am kicking it and shoving it out of my door?
I think a lot of thought still has to go into this entire business of mixing humans with robots. Human safety is only the tip of the iceberg, there are many other issues as well. Such as how you will pay for the public space your robot or robots use? What insurances shall we require you to carry. What annual certifications will we require? Will you need an operator license?
what do you want? a fxing submachine gun?
@@statinskill Your requirements are stricter than those for a human bicycle courier. Nobody randomly kicks and shoves a delivery person or expects them to occupy no space/make no sound.
@@AZNPR1D3Z Of course I am much stricter, because robots are far less than people. They are just sensors and actuators and a motherboard somewhere. A walking notebook.
Of course I can use force to keep your robot from doing what it wants on my property. And of course you should be made to pay for the public space you use.
the rural robots have been a great success I'm glad to see that the urban population upgrading themselves too!
Interesting! What robots do you have in your area?
@@freethink I wondering the same
It's called sarcasm (robots don't understand this yet)
@@oldbean4347 Is not a fact, if you live in the Netherlands, could be true ...
Farmbots? John Deere bought Bear Flag Robotics and is announcing swarm concept agricultural robots. So rural robots are real. Time for cities to catch up.
Saw one of these three years ago in Cleveland. Don't forget many urban deliveries are done by bicycle.
Kinda scary
I did Doordash for a bit, I would drive at least 20+ miles each hour. These robots are going a fraction of the speed, meaning any long deliveries would arrive in like an hour and the food would be cold. But cold food isn't the main issue. If you want to remove 100,000 delivery vehicles, whose delivery efficiency is greater by many orders of magnitude, you will need many hundreds of thousands of delivery robots. That is alot of resources going towards something you are trying to greenwash as being "sustainable". Most delivery drivers use their cars for many different purposes besides just delivering, unlike a 1-purpose delivery robot.
And how is a human-controlled backup system more advanced than Tesla's AI?
It isnt. Teslas are infinitely better and more advanced. Its just some marketing gimmick.
In reality, these robots have the luxury of being confined to the sidewalk, so they can pretend to have "level 4 autonomy"
This might work in big cities and certain suburbs, but I really dont see it working all that well oustide of those environments.
Curious to see how something like this would manage in cold northern climates when the roads and sidewalks are covered in snow & ice…
Give it tracks with spikes. No solution is ever going to fit every situation but even with just tires they can reach a majority of the population.
Estonia has been doing this for a while, and it works fine there
I'm assuming they'll have to build slightly different versions for different climates. I believe UPS does that with their trucks.
@@CupolaDaze No. Spikes will not be implemented. They're sharp; could hurt human/animal.
Tank Wheels would solved the problems.
You guys became my favourite channel within a week of discovering you! Kudos ! 🤗 been binge watching all your videos
I think automated delivery drones is a better idea. They would take cars off the road but not take up space on the sidewalks for humans and would be out of reach of thieves and vandals which seem to be two of the biggest complaints and concerns in the comment section and also could travel much faster than this sidewalk robot thus leading to fewer cold burritos and pizzas.
That would create too much noise pollution imo.
noise, and temperature of food
This might answer some of your points: ua-cam.com/video/J-M98KLgaUU/v-deo.html&ab_channel=WendoverProductions
While drone delivery sounds like a nice idea for the suburbs, they have no place in dense cities that don’t have much sidewalks to begin with; and on top of everything they have trees, cables, signs, etc. Furthermore, I’m sure these robots are way more energy efficient and can do more deliveries on a single charge.
@@AlvTellez you got house in woods? if not then drone can fly above trees and fly in a straight line when car robot gonna drive and take a lot of turns, less efficient than a drone...
I'm all for reducing the amount of cars on the road. The channel "Not Just Bikes" does a great job exploring this idea as well.
Love that channel
I'm looking forward to having it happen in my city soon. It's not here just yet but it's coming and I've been following news of these delivery robots for a number of years.
I Doordash and see so many potential problems with robots, 75% of customers want leave it at my door? What about apartments? Dirt road? Gated communities? Customer not available? Wrong address or navigation? Etc.
I'm sure people would start to rip all expensive parts/metals and sell them somewhere
in these types of videos, i would want to know more what are the challenges and how different their approaches are. how are they addressing the difficult terrains, inaccurate GPS. Is their AI significantly better, did they train it differently. thanksss just some feedback, so much potential, yet feels empty
I agree.
Price would likely be a big challenge, those lidars aren’t cheap
Really liked the documentation in this video, hoped to see a Mechanical engineer Designer called Tamer Shaheen who is also a UA-camr and says he works there but oh well, maybe he was on home office lol
We move 2 pound burritos in 2 ton cars because they’re a lot faster than any other option right now.
Reminds me of the starship robots I have seen on the streets of Tallinn, and of that self driving bus
Yeah, it's a similar idea! It's amazing how far in advance Estonia is in a lot of respects. We did a video about their government the other year: ua-cam.com/video/nPJ7IVFNEhI/v-deo.html
@@freethink Thats a great video, I am glad to see Estonia's e-government being talked about.
Wouldn’t mind getting my parcels by one of them. In Fakt the chance he even gets to my door is probably higher than his human counterparts. I think they don’t even try and deliver them directly to the next parcel shop.
Haha, fair point. Often people instinctively think of the things they might not be able to do that humans can - but also important to remember we have human-based services and they come with their own drawbacks 🙂
What happens when someone kicks it over?
real possibility, it has smaller wheels to so it can probably be tipped of by something as small as a volley ball. anyway, excited to see human friendly designs
I think it is great. In terms of just being cool and helping the environment, making cities more livable. Education is becoming so accessible that anyone who wants a good job and is capable of putting in the work to learn something can get one. - Just my opinion.
The WALL-E looking robot is only partially suitable for street use.
It must be able to right itself when it hits a curb poorly and falls over. Vandalism. Theft.
Keeping food hot or cold.
Street-traveling robot design has a long way to go yet. What if it meets a kid on a bicycle?
Did we see pneumatic tires? I hope not. I don't think we want to deal with tires going flat.
At least the journey to find a suitable design in underway. Forward, ever. :)
They’re being vandalized and tipped over 😂 it’s hilarious. Hope it continues
Can you fit a standard size pizza box in it?
A nice, hopeful doc, cheers guys
I could see one of these running over my grandma as she slowly walks down the sidewalk!
As long as we don't give robots opposable thumbs, humanity isn't doomed to AI rebellion ala Skynet......
Maybe.
Unless they give themselves opposable thumbs 😬😬😬
Most Cities and HOAs wouldn't allow this on their sidewalks.
Businesses to operate on the sidewalks... imagine tons of companies doing this. Now shipping on the roads and the sidewalks. Not sure this is the solution
You're definitely right that most cities and HOAs currently wouldn't allow something like this right away. It'll be interesting to see how it - and cities - evolve in the coming years. After all, things like cars were not allowed universally at first, and more recently ridesharing services were banned in many cities before, often, gradually gaining acceptance (though they currently have their own financial issues).
It may depend on customers and businesses wanting them. If it's thought of as simply more traffic with no utility to you, it's not a very exciting prospect. But if it enables you to get great food quickly and cheaply, or allows your business to sell way more products, it could be quite popular.
If it reaches the point where there are tons of vehicles, it may be necessary to come up with a new solution. There's a lot of cities that are currently redesigning their roads to allow micromobility (bike/scooter/etc) lanes, so perhaps they could share those or have dedicated delivery lanes in crowded areas.
In the US in many parts sidewalks is just not a thing. I wonder if this thing can get on the road 🤔
in my country we only have car delivery in rural areas. delivery drivers use bikes. i would use robot delivery too i think^^
not sure why people are choosing food delivery and paying for delivery around 30% of the cost of food. not even talking about ingredients quality and so on.
This is uniquely US problem….everywhere else we have motor bikes for food delivery which is way more efficient and sustainable than a car
If you don't have to worry about getting supplies every week or so, then think about all the time you will have on your hands to improve yourself and pursue opportunities you otherwise couldn't.
I live in Seattle. For the past 10 years we have been dealing with an increase in homelessness, created by the cost of living, the lack of mental health/social services support, and government inaction. One side effect of this has been the increase in crime and vandalism in the downtown core. Scooter and bike rentals have suffered from theft and repurposed assets by the "unhoused", and I would anticipate these robots would be even more vulnerable to predation given the easy access to goods being delivered. I wish this were not the case, as this is a legitimate way to reduce traffic and automate mundane work.
We don't have much space on the sidewalks, now I will have to share this space with a swarm of robots delivering food for people in offices or homes, which doesn't seem appealing to me. The guy said something about cities for people, but his project looks kind of the opposite because you are taking the space from the people, we already have too many cars in the streets, and now he wants to sell us cars for the sidewalks, I don't think this is scalable, at least not in the sidewalks
The whole idea is that if we need less cars, we can create bigger sidewalks.
"Why is it that we move 2 pound burritos in 2 ton cars?" We dont, not at the distances your robots are operating. We move those with bikes and ebikes.
The design is like Wall-E mixed with Minions, the robot could have some signal lamps and a voice, and if it falls over is stuck there until someone picks it up. Try turning over a car.
Do a lot of cars fall over where you live?
I remember a show on Netflix called "Love, Death, Robots" and one of the episodes there's robots just like this that tries to kill a innocent lady just because her sentient roomba got pissed at her and her dog. We gonna die
The delivery robots are cool, but seriously I don't know where we're going to get all the sidewalks needed for this to work. American roads are notorious for having crappy, inconsistent, and often altogether non-existent sidewalks.
good idea but also gotta think of how to avoid thieves,i mean,they won t steal the food but the entire robot lol! ik ik it has a tracker but unless this robot flies for his life they are gonna crash him to pieces😞
@@Dream-hy6et so are banks but they still get robbed lol!!
This man is a menace to society
Nice! One step after another. Good luck people.
I love these things. They are so adorable and they make me feel like the future is here. I hope they will become an accepted part of society everywhere.
Lol we’ve had ones like these on my uni campus for a couple years now
They follow an autonomy level of 4, which is way smarter than any other delivery robot you can see
Yeah, there are a number of different companies working on them and different levels of technology. How was your experience with the robots on your university campus, though? Many places are testing them on university campuses, probably because there are a lot of pedestrian paths (and people ordering delivery).
@@freethink I haven’t personally used them but see them around. I haven’t ran into any issues wrt them being in the way and people seem to like them enough to help if they get stuck
Been waiting for robotics+AI all my life and it's amazing seeing it unfold year by year, now month by month.
Wish they didn’t look like minions but cool idea for sure
My new stroller! Cute!
علی کاشانی عزیز
باعث افتخار است که نام شما رو اینجا دیدم
موفق باشی رفیق
Nice idea until you see them in the river in Portland or bashed in on the side of Hollywood Blvd. Japan would be a place this might work.
Because catching your robot when someone is hungry seems like a good idea
These have been in the UK for years in the town of Milton Keynes...
I don't see this happening in my country. Food delivery services here relies on bikes, scooters, electric bikes for the delivery. Also in most cities, when you are 16 years old, you can pick an elektric bike off the street and pay with your card (it's build in the electric bike.) Most cities here are working on making their roads, bike or pedestrian friendly. In most cities you have to ride 30km in the centrum of the city. The Belgium government heavily advices to take public transport. But it's actually really shitty here 🤣😂🥲. They also have electric cars for people in the cities to use with the same function. (I know more space in traffic, but cars are not used much for delivery at companies only for packages or moving stuff and also trucks.
You live in Belgium?
@@GDL364 yes
How will it escape criminals and those with malevolent intentions?
Ali: “I hope so”
Me: finally I can see someone sharing the same aspirations.
Since I saw these little things I thought they were cute.is like I don't know but you can't stop wondering....❤❤❤❤😊😊😊😊😊😅😅😅😅😅😅
There are gonna be a lot of empty smashed robots of the streets
Watching the mechanic change tires on the robot, couldn't help thinking, are robots serving humans, or... is this the beginnng of humans serving robots...? 🤔🤔
This would work great in the Netherlands. You could go everywhere on foot and bike lanes. US streets are a lot harder to navigate. That futuristic street is the street in the Netherlands. Only different colors. They're in the wrong country.
LMAO!!! So where I live...there are a lot of streets with no sidewalks. Also, basic GPS can be at least one street off...if not 2 or 3 miles off.....I also work in the city, and GPS misses my job by a block.....
No, robots do not belong on the sidewalks. First cars pushed people out of roads, now robots are trying to takeover sidewalks.
Same with baby carts
food delivery is done by bike cycle in this country. nice concept but package delivery would be more intresting i would say at least for this country
"looking at history" we became obsolete in certain areas so we filled in the social, adaptive, and decision making areas automation was not effective at. Ai will fill in those areas finishing our obsolescence to business. Human's simply will not be able to compete anywhere.
People like to draw arbitrary lines of how advanced digital intelligence can become, mostly as an emotional defense I think. Whatever the actual limits are it's already clear they are well past us.
This may sound like "doom and gloom" but the level of abundance that comes out of this could easily make it so everyone lives very comfortably.
To me the scarier part is AI has already proven to have unforeseen and dangerous side effects even with positive intentions. We are in early days of AI so those effects could become catastrophic as it has more control and more intelligence.
What is new about this? At my University we have this to delivery food since 2018...
While right to self defence will be denied to the people, I believe, those robots will have it.
How does it know when its safe to cross a street?
WALL-E grandfather!😁
Yes but a car drives 50km/h while this thing drives walking speed. I dont want cold mushy food when this thing finally arrives at my place...
Was hoping for a short documentary, watched a commercial.
I just saw a news story about the robot being attacked and food solen from them. What is the purpose of the pin entry when the thief lifted up the lid and took the bag of food out? In theory I like the idea and the design of the robot, but I worry about it being attacked. Its loud siren did little to deter attackers. The robot need to be outfitted with tazers to protect themselves. When you do an update story, play Kraftwerk's song 'The Robots' in the background.
Their adorable wee robots..cute looking
What happens when the robot falls sideways in the middle of the road?
The rationale for use is correct and the robots are cute and human “friendly” but security is a whole other question. Also cost of repairs for human inflicted damage as well as sanitation is a major unknown. I agree that the job issues will take care of themselves although I imagine some will be lost as the system realigns itself to AI technology.
I hope so.... Damn Ali (Artificial Love intelligence) 😂😂
Exciting stuff wow
In my area, the vast majority of fast food deliveries are done by bike, some by electric bikes or electric scooters. These robots would, therefore, achieve one thing, unemployment. They also need to travel more slowly than a human on a bike, so food would not be as warm when it arrived.
Some have commented on using these to deliver packages. Is it really a good idea to replace 1 driver in 1 car, who can be making 20 to 30 deliveries, with a greater number of these? I have my groceries delivered, the van drivers tell me that they make 8 to 10 deliveries per trip, and during a day will do 4 or 5 trips. These robots would need to be larger, divided into compartments with a chilled section and a frozen section, and a large number of units would be required to fulfil current demand.
Even if roadways could, eventually, be reclaimed to provide more space for pedestrians, there would not be enough space for robots and people, especially as reclaimed roadways usually include space for bikes.
There are many issues raised by this type of system:
•Rural areas are not catered for.
•In a CBD or an urban area with high rise accommodation, how do the robots access upper floors? If they don't, then it defeats the whole concept of deliveries, which are meant to be door to door.
•People living in rougher areas would be unlikely to be served by these robots, as companies, like many taxi drivers now, would be unwilling to enter areas of risk.
•If the robot stops for people, which they should, how, in a busy area, do they get anywhere without being stationary for half a trip.
As far as I can see, these vehicles have a niche market, areas planned specifically for robots that overcome all of the problems that a contemporary city throws at them.
yeh but only in America would you do deliveries mostly bar cars, in europe we use bicycles and mopeds, occasionaly cars.
I’m excited for us to reduce reliance on cars for delivery!
it makes too msny steering inputs and the inputs aren't ramped
Wait can anyone just open the robot and steal your lunch-
Lol jk but what if we could pet the robot😄
Anyone know the stat of short range (
those bots will high attrition rate :P
The answer to many of the factors limiting tech innovation will come in a few decades: Desolation. Then, if you try to steal/damage a company's property, you (and your parts) may be scavanged from instead.
These are everywhere in LA
this robots need alot of protection
I wouldnt say those robots are "smarter than a tesla".
Self driving cars like Teslas have to deal with roads being broken, with no lines painted, and has to be extremely adaptable and unbeleivably reliable.
These food delivery robots dont exactly have to deal with that.
But I still get the point though. Because they operate on sidewalks and arent 2 ton cars on the freeway, they can work with much more autonomy than normal.
The real problem though is getting these bots to work on neighbhorhoods without proper sidewalks. The company is gonna be pretty limited on what areas they can actually service.
Obviously for cities, this would be really benificial. But the real challenge is expanding to suburbs.
It has a higher level of autonomy its objectively smarter
Everything that is NOT cars is crammed onto the sidewalk. This has to change. Streets have to be for everyone again.
He lied. Holy grail is level 5 autonomy, autonomous all the time
What would stop people destroying them on purpose ?
What stops people from destroying ride-sharing vehicles on purpose?
It's a great question. Some of the ways that delivery robot companies are addressing this are having the compartment locked until the customer unlocks it with their mobile app, and having cameras--and people--that are monitoring for theft or vandalism. It may also help that the devices at the moment just deliver food, so the hassle and risk of stealing and destroying one to get a free burrito (almost certainly cold by then...) may simply not be worth it. Time will tell, though!
@@freethink But that Lidar puck might be worth the time tho…
Boy is this guy gonna be surprised when he finds out how few pavement there are in the states
I like this guys message car culture is poison
Lets put an end to Robo-bullying! 🛑
what is the name of the robot?
It all comes down to the missed point in city engineering - while we all have electricity, water, gas, sewage, telecom, cable ... the one utility of a lazy-ass human is an instant-post (think of instant-messaging vs post-office letters). If cities were equipped with a distribution system of goods/consumables, where you can route a small sized packet (and also collect reusable packaging), there would be no need to have robots to do them. But sure.. turning the automotive market onto fixed railroads, and having your food come at your door - sounds bit like a life of a prisoner.
1:33 a robot that is respected by humans.?.. arm it.😳🤖
Sounds great, but you know people are going to steal/vandalize it
Cool
What I see is thieves stripping one if these within a minute, leaving the box but taking the electronics, motors - and lunch - for resale. I love your idea, but I see smash-and-grab rings in San Francisco that would LOVE these. You will need some serious real-time protection (Thief step one, throw a Faraday hood over it so it can't call for help, cut GPS power, load into a van - gone.)
1:11 a bit sus ngl
it is not smarter than a tesla. deceptive title
Star Trek in 20 years
I like how I got here after binge watching Film the Robots LA where these things can't do anything but fall over or annoy the entire local populace.
I'm not saying the idea has no merit but this aint it chief. (nicer ver. it's not there yet)