Serve Robotics, a company that runs a sidewalk delivery robot service, announced that the company has partnered with Walmart. Its robots have been spotted in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Serve Robotics confirmed that the company’s robots have been operating in Bentonville, but declined to comment further. A spokesperson told the Mobile Robot Guide that “we look forward to sharing additional partnership news in the coming months.”
While Serve Robotics’ delivery robots have been at work since January making deliveries in LA, grocery delivery will be new ground for the company. In LA, the company delivers with Uber Eats with Level 4 autonomy.
The sidewalk delivery company began in 2017 as the robotics division of Postmates, and spun out as an independent company in February 2021 after Postmates had been acquired by Uber.
In November 2021, Serve Robotics announced its partnership with Uber Eats, and a month later, announced the close of a $13 million expanded seed funding round. Participants in the round included Uber Technologies, Wavemaker Labs, DX Ventures and 7-Eleven’s corporate venture arm 7-Ventures.
The company received additional funding in March 2022, when Nvidia announced that it was investing $10 million into Serve Robotics. The company’s robot is built around the Nvidia Jetson edge compute model. Data from all of the onboard sensors and cameras are processed by the Jetson Xavier computer.
Serve Robotics’ delivery robot can carry up to 50 lbs for 25 miles on a single charge. Items are placed in a cargo compartment and secured until it reaches the delivery destination. To access their items, customers unlock the robot with a phone app or passcode. While the robot is making its way to its destination, customers can track their delivery with the Uber Eats app.
