Most delivery automations stop at the curb. But for Veho and Zurich-based robotics startup RIVR, the real challenge and opportunity lies in the final 100 yards from the van to the front door.
In a pilot program launched in Austin on Tuesday, RIVR’s four-wheeled stair climbing streaming robot is described by CEO and founder Marko Bjelonic as a “roller skating dog.”
Companies are starting to be small, they told TechCrunch exclusively. The highly monitored robot works every day, running 5-6 hours across Austin over several weeks. However, the two companies see it as an important step in solving the unique slices of their end-to-end autonomous delivery journey.
In its last mile delivery, Bjelonic said, “Robotics impact by actually solving these very challenging problems that are actually very easy for humans but difficult for robots. [Rivr] As a differentiator, as a step in the next evolution from sidewalk robots. ”
Additionally, in partnership with Veho, RIVR gives the opportunity to test its technology and accumulate the data needed to build a popular physical AI framework.
“What we saw in the robot space is that ChatGpt and other chatbots have the internet as training data, while self-driving cars have thousands of cars on the streets, and there are data barriers because they can install sensors and start collecting data,” Bjelonic told TechCrunch. “However, in the world of robotics, such datasets are missing, so we need to find meaningful use cases that can solve real problems. And we can gather all the data to make these robots more intelligent.”
For Veho, which offers 50 US markets for brands like Sephora, Saks and Hellofresh, this partnership is an opportunity to test what automation looks like from vans to customer doors. This could ultimately lead to more delivery at once, especially in dense urban areas where both drivers and robots are tagged simultaneously on certain streets. Bjelonic says Rivr’s “robot helpers” can also “reduce the workload of these drivers” by taking over the physically demanding task of walking from door to door.
During the Austin Trial, RIVR employees will accompany the bot to ensure safety and quality of delivery. Bjelonic told TechCrunch that bots can operate autonomously, but remote operators can tap if they get stuck.
According to Fred Cook, Beeo co-founder and CTO, Austin pilots will expand into more dense areas of town before they can begin in more residential areas in northwest Austin. In the future, Cook says he can imagine combining vehicles with certain types of vehicles and charging stations and bot charging stations to continue his day’s work.
RIVR hopes to use learning from a partnership with Veho to scale to 100 bots by next year and to 100 bots in 2027. The startup is currently operating in the UK through a partnership with distribution platform EVRI. RIVR has raised more than $25 million from the Jeff Bezos-led round, which valued the company at $100 million.
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