American food-delivery robot company. At the start of 2025 Serve had only 100 bots; it has since deployed 2,000 to 20 cities. Its cooler-sized robots map their surroundings using the same cameras and sensors as self-driving cars; artificial intelligence helps them cross roads, dodge runners and scale snowbanks. The company has contracts with Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub. Its boss, Ali Kashani, says 99.8% of robots successfully complete their trips.
Serve has given its machines names and puppy-dog eyes to mitigate a public backlash against delivery robots. The company trains the bots to be "courteous"—to slow down near pedestrians and swivel their wheels to signal their intentions. It hopes to expand into pharmaceutical pick-ups and shopping returns.
Serve's competitors include Coco, with a fleet of 1,000 robots, and Starship Technologies, with 2,000. Thunder Said Energy, a consultancy, found that a Starship bot is 100 times more energy-efficient than a motorcycle.
A Pew Research Centre survey found that Americans are far more concerned about AI intruding on daily life than people in other rich countries. In Chicago 3,300 residents signed a petition asking their city to ban delivery bots.
Lack of skill dictates economy of style.