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Another tech company has jumped into robotic food delivery, with its own spin on the growing technology.
Presto, a provider of digital ordering products for restaurants, is partnering with robot delivery company Ottonomy to use its rovers to carry food over short distances—namely, from the kitchen to the curb.
Presto CEO Raj Suri told me he thinks this is the right application for delivery bots right now, rather than last-mile deliveries on sidewalks or roads.
“I think there’s just too much risk, too much complexity, too many edge cases” with long-distance delivery, he said.
A recent tweet purporting to show a fleet of delivery robots stuck in the snow in Estonia is just one example.
In Presto’s model, Ottonomy bots handle a minor but necessary task that frees up staff to do other things, Suri said. Curbside customers and delivery drivers can get the food in no more than two minutes, with no human labor required besides loading the meal into the bot.
The partnership is currently in a pilot phase, but he said the technology is “ready today” and that Presto has already gotten a lot of interest.
A few weeks ago,...
Read Full Story: https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/technology/tech-roundup-next-step-robot-delivery-might-be-small-one
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