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Automated food delivery robots that debuted in Los Angeles are moving to Miami. The hot pink, remote-controlled coolers are being piloted in downtown Miami.
Elnatan Rudolph, managing partner of COCO Automated Food Delivery, represents Miami and presented the idea at the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) board meeting March 18.
“We work with local brick-and-mortar restaurants,” Mr. Rudolph said. “Restaurants finish cooking something and have to time it perfectly with a delivery vehicle with Uber Eats or DoorDash. Here, the vehicle is there as soon as it’s finished being cooked, gets placed and goes right to the customer. The customer is not going to say, ‘my food is cold.’”
When the robot arrives, the customer receives a notice and code by phone. Customers then scan the top of the robotic cooler so it opens for them.
“This reduces cost of delivery for restaurants by 50% to 80%,” Mr. Rudolph said. “We’re going to work with the DDA on finding five or six merchants downtown to pilot the bots.”
A question from the board was how people react to the robots.
“Plenty of people have tried to crack them open in downtown LA, but the pilot is able to communicate with someone who is trying to do that,” Mr. Rudolph said. “Only the person who received the link with the QR code can open the bot.”
The most damage Mr. Rudolph said he has seen to the COCO bots is people placing stickers on them.
The coolers would work downtown in a one- to three-mile radius of the restaurant. They move at three to five miles per hour on sidewalks downtown. “Every vehicle has cameras with a 360-degree view,” Mr. Rudolph said. “Every one of our pilots has over 100 hours of remote training before they pilot their first.”
Both mom-and-pop and chain restaurants have used COCO delivery in Santa Monica and Los Angeles, according to Mr. Rudolph.
“One of the biggest things these bots do is take cars off the streets,” he said. Reducing traffic is a goal for the new food delivery.
Restaurants in the program could still use delivery apps such as Uber Eats and DoorDash, but with an option for the local robot carrier. “Based on the delivery radius of one to two miles,” Mr. Rudolph said, instead of summoning a driver it will get picked up by a bot… they make the delivery and come back to the restaurant.”
“If we can get scooters, mopeds and Uber drivers off the streets, I’m all for it,” said DDA Chairman Manolo Reyes.
A concern expressed by the DDA board was safety: are the automated coolers going to hit pedestrians on sidewalks, and do sidewalks have space for the robots?
“In the two years of operation in Santa Monica and LA it has never hit a person,” said Mr. Rudolph. “They are about as wide as a person… and they make the delivery and come back to the restaurant.” The COCO robots, he said, will not be left on sidewalks like scooters.
“I second all concerns and want to avoid the fiasco that resulted from the unmitigated delivery of scooters,” said DDA board member Philippe Houdard. “I think we can learn from that experience to make sure we come up with the right policies for this… This will be great to alleviate some strains on traffic.”
The robots require no city permit, and the DDA board agreed it wants to give the COCO Automated Food Delivery service a try.
“You should train locals to be pilots,” said Mr. Reyes. “It will provide jobs for them here.”
https://www.miamitodaynews.com/2022/03/22/pink-remote-control-food-coolers-may-roll-on-downtown-miami-sidewalks/
