DoorDash just unveiled new delivery service offerings, the most notable of which is an AI-powered anthropomorphic robot named Dot.
Dot is touted as both agile and fast — traveling up to 20 m.p.h. — and is already deployed in the greater Phoenix area. (Meanwhile, in L.A., a non-DoorDash delivery robot recently crashed into a disabled person in a wheelchair.) The robot is electric and one-tenth the size of a car, and DoorDash touts it as an environmentally friendly alternative to car-based deliveries. Dot’s deftness means it can travel to the front doors of many homes, apartments, and office buildings, according to the company.
“You don’t always need a full-sized car to deliver a tube of toothpaste or pack of diapers,” Stanley Tang, cofounder and head of DoorDash Labs, said in a statement. “The breakthrough wasn’t just making it autonomous, but in making it reliable and efficient to serve the needs of local businesses and consumers … It is small enough to navigate doorways and driveways, fast enough to maintain food quality, and smart enough to optimize the best routes for delivery.”
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Dot can carry up to 30 lbs. of cargo or six large pizza boxes. The robots are also designed with “eyes” that react to sounds and glance toward someone speaking or honking at them. When opened by customers, the robots (oddly) make a yawning sound.
Along with Dot, DoorDash also announced its new Autonomous Delivery Platform, an AI-powered dispatcher that determines the best way to deliver products to a customer — whether it’s by Dot, drone, or driver.
