Self-driving and robotics startup Cartken has partnered with REEF Technology, a startup that operates parking lots and community centers, to introduce self-driving delivery robots to downtown Miami streets.
With this announcement, Cartken has officially moved out of stealth mode. Founded in 2019 by engineers involved in the development of the bookbot that never saw the light of day at Google, the company is a market for autonomous driving and AI-equipped robots and delivery operations using them.
It was working on the development of a technology that would work in Japan, but until now the business content had been hidden. This is the first time Cartken’s self-driving sidewalk robot has been deployed on a large scale.
After several months of testing, Cartken’s REEF-branded electric robot orders food from a delivery-only kitchen to people now living in a 3/4 mile radius of downtown Miami.
Equipped with a luggage compartment that is insulated to prevent the heat of hot dishes such as spaghetti from escaping, the robot is located at a preset distribution base and will be instructed to deliver when the dishes are ready.
“We want to show how Miami is ahead of the future,” REEF Chief Technology Officer Matt Lindenberger told TechCrunch.
“This is a great opportunity to show the potential of the technology. How this technology works, combined with our strong presence in Miami and the congestion on the streets as the epidemic of the new coronavirus infection subsides. We have a very good environment where we can show how it works.”
Miami is a great place to start, according to Lindenberger, but it’s just the beginning, and Cartken’s robots could be used for other REEF last mile delivery projects.
Currently, only two restaurant food delivery robots are in operation in Miami, but they will be expanding their adoption both inside and outside the area, including Fort Lauderdale and even Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and finally New York. The company plans to expand to other large cities in which it operates.
Lindenberger says that the presence of robots in the city acts as a so-called “force multiplier” and can be scaled up in a cost-effective way while maintaining quality of service.
“Delivery is currently exploding in the post-corona world and is expected to continue, so such non-contact, zero-emission automation technologies are so important,” Lindenberger said.
Cartken’s robots combine machine learning with rule-based programming to handle all possible situations. That simply includes stopping safely and asking for help, Cartken CEO Christian Bersch told TechCrunch.
REEF has managers on-site to remotely control robots as needed, a note included in a 2017 law permitting the operation of self-driving delivery robots in Florida.
“After all, this technology is very similar to self-driving cars,” says Bursh.
“The robot looks at the environment and plans to avoid obstacles such as pedestrians and street lights. If an unknown situation occurs, the robot can stop suddenly, so it is safe to remove the robot from that situation. It is possible to rescue, but the important thing is to give the robot a level of autonomy that can react in an instant, which is impossible with remote control, in the event that someone suddenly jumps out in front of the robot.”
REEF identifies the robot’s active area on the map, and Cartken adjusts the settings for the city, taking into account the specific circumstances that the robot needs.
As a result, when the delivery address is specified, the robot can move and perform the work in the same manner as a human delivery person. The robot is equipped with LTE lines and constantly updates location information, so REEF can be incorporated into the management function of the delivery unit.
In the future, customers will be able to choose robotic delivery on major REEF-affiliated food delivery platforms such as Postmates, UberEats, DoorDash, and GrubHub. Lindenberger says he wants to do that.
Customers will receive a text message when the robot arrives and will be able to go out of the house to meet the robot, but the technology is not yet complete.
At present, robots can only go to the road, so many customers want a service in which a human delivery person receives food and carries it directly to the door.
Also, if you live in an apartment, it is difficult for the robot to enter the building and reach the orderer’s room. Many customers are not yet ready to meet the robot directly.
“This is a tentative step, but for us it was a way to quickly bring technology to reality without any other restrictions,” Lindenberger said.
“As with any new technology, it’s important to take steps. Now, the very important step we have taken and succeeded is to dispatch a robot within a certain radius and there. It turns out that we can arrive properly. This is a huge step in the development process by itself, and we can see what challenges we face towards the final stage. We can work with Cartken to start working on solving the final challenge. Just being able to do this kind of automation is a big step.”