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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Robotics, AI & Data

WaitTime’s New Crowd Management Tools Could Help Stadiums Re-Open

It’s only now that there is serious talk of re-starting some professional sports. What that looks like remains to be seen, but one thing is pretty certain: we won’t be jamming tens of thousands of people together in one place to cheer on a team, at least not right away. Any return to “normal” will be gradual and start with way fewer people, all of whom will need to be kept appropriately socially distant. To help with this slow re-opening, WaitTime has developed two new tools to help building administrators manage crowds of people.

Spoon aficionados might remember WaitTime as the company that makes what is basically a Waze for concession stand lines. But with stadiums closed, there hasn’t been much need to find the shortest line for hot dogs.

So the company has introduced two new products: one that calculates how many people are in a certain space, and one that maps out crowd densities in different parts of a building.

Using a ceiling mounted camera, computer vision and AI, WaitTime can tell building staff how many people are entering and exiting a particular space like the bathroom (the camera is only mounted on the outside of the exits, not in the bathroom itself). It may sound odd, but the number of people allowed into a bathroom at a given time could be regulated going forward to help maintain space and stymie the spread of infection. If too many people enter, building staff can temporarily stop access to that particular spot.

The other new WaitTime tool analyzes live footage from CCTV cameras already installed at a location to create heat maps of crowd density. This can help building managers figure out where too many people are gathering too close and take appropriate measures.

As you can imagine, these crowd management tools could find a life outside of stadiums and into our everyday experiences, like the grocery store. We already saw supermarkets limit the number of people allowed in a store at any given time during this pandemic, and if we need to do so again, WaitTime’s software could automate keeping track of how many people are shopping at once.

“We have a lot of interest from grocery stores and retailers,” WaitTime Founder and CEO, Zack Klima told me by phone this week, “Because everything has to do with occupancy tracking.”

As states start to open up, we’re seeing how you can’t necessarily trust the wisdom of the crowd. But with WaitTime’s new products, stadiums and other gathering spaces can be wise about any crowds they do attract.

Dishcraft Raises $20M, Adds Reuseable Takeout Container Cleaning as a Service

Dishcraft Robotics, which uses robots and AI to automate dish cleaning for high-volume eating establishments, announced today that it has raised a $20 million “Series A1” round of funding. The round was led by new investor Grit Ventures with participation from existing investors First Round Capital, Baseline Ventures, Fuel Capital, and Lemnos. Dishcraft has raised $46 million in total funding to date.

When we last checked in with Dishcraft in January of this year, the company had just publicly come out with Dishcraft Daily, which is basically dishes as a service for foodservice locations like cafeterias. As we wrote back in January:

Each day, Dishcraft arrives at the end of lunch service, picks up all the dirty dishes that have been stacked into special carts, and drops off clean ones. Dirty dishes are taken back to the Dishcraft facility and loaded into the cleaning robot.

The Dishcraft robot uses computer vision, sensors, UV light and AI to detect the cleanliness of each dish as it goes through the machine. This technology, Dishcraft says, makes for cleaner plates because the machine can detect (and clean) any particles remaining that the human eye can’t.

However, the global pandemic hit shortly after the launch of Dishcraft Daily, forcing foodservice operations like corporate and college cafeterias to shut down. But rather than twiddle its thumbs to wait this whole thing out, Dischcraft adapted.

As part of today’s announcement, Dishcraft said it will use the new money to expand its daily dish delivery to now include reusable to-go containers and utensils. The reusable container program had been on the company’s roadmap, but was accelerated because takeout became the main, if only way, for foodservice companies to get meals out. But as anyone who’s ordered meal delivery during this global lockdown knows, restaurant food is packed in single-use plastic containers. That might help people eat right now, but those containers are definitely bad for the environment in the long term.

According to the press release, the reusable containers will allow cafeterias, caterers and restaurants “to offer diners individually portioned takeaway meals in reusable containers that meet health guidelines for sanitization and hygiene.” The program will start with corporate cafeterias and cafes, with to-go container return bins set up around the office. Those full bins will then be collected by Dishcraft to be sanitized every day. It’s easy to see how this could expand to colleges with bins placed around campus.

Dishcraft hasn’t fully worked out how it would integrate its to-go container program into restaurant operations, but Linda Pouliot, Founder and CEO of Dishcraft told me by phone this week that some options could be working with cities to set up designated collection areas, or even possibly Dishcraft creating its own curbside pickup service.

Restaurants and other foodservice companies are only just now coming out of quarantine and only in certain parts of the country. There are still lots of questions about exactly how they will re-open and what that will look like. One thing we do know from a recent Washington State University study is that consumers are nervous about going right back into restaurants and as my colleague Jenn Marston wrote:

Consumers surveyed for the report said that sanitation efforts like masks for servers, hand sanitizer stations, and other visible efforts, like seeing staff clean tables and chairs, will be the most important safety precautions.

Dishcraft’s sanitization service could then be attractive to restaurants looking to entice people back into their businesses. “We have such a closed system,” Pouliot said, “Our goal is that no human hand touches the dishes before it gets to the diner or plated.”

Dishcraft is available in the Bay Area, and currently counts Affirm and foodservice company Guckenheimer among its customers. Dishcraft said that it will expand the size of its dishwashing hub in San Carlos, CA.

How Will the Black Swan of COVID-19 Impact Data Used in AI-Based Flavor Prediction?

In order to build an effective artificial intelligence (AI) platform, you need good data. Data feeds the algorithms that go into the AI; the better your data the better your AI system will function.

In the food tech world, there are a number of startups like Spoonshot, Analytical Flavor Systems and Tastewise have built intricate AI platforms that use tons of different data to help big CPG companies identify and predict culinary and flavor trends.

But what happens when a big catastrophic black swan event occurs like, oh, I don’t know, a global pandemic, which changes the eating and buying patterns of almost everyone on the planet all at once?

For instance. In February, it was easy to buy flour and yeast at your local grocery store. Fast forward to March and suddenly store shelves were empty and you had to resort to making your own yeast. Around that same time, instead of pictures of fancy restaurant meals, social media accounts were flooded with pictures of homemade bread.

Food predicting AI systems uses data points like restaurant menus, social media mentions and consumer purchasing patterns to determine future trends. But everyone didn’t start making sourdough bread at home because it was suddenly fashionable. It was because everyone was stuck inside.

How then, will AI systems handle this shock to the data system? Sheltering in place won’t last forever (knocks on wood), and who knows how long people will actually make their own bread. The popularity of it now is an aberration, does this mean that the data surrounding it is no good? Is bread making today indicative of anything other being bored or does it foretell a bigger trend?

To get a better sense I reached out to both SpoonShot and Analytical Flavor Systems to see how they are incorporating this massive disruption to our eating patterns into their own prediction process — and got two very different answers.

SpoonShot’s AI uses more than 3,000 sources across 22 data sets including menu, social and pattern data. Kishan Vasani, Co-Founder & CEO of SpoonShot, didn’t seem to think that COVID-19-induced eating changes would impact his company’s predictive capabilities at all. “Algorithms shouldn’t be overly sensitive to black swan data,” he said, “If you think about it, AI essentially means having enough relevant and appropriate data to process and predict.”

In other words, if your AI system is worth its salt, you should be able to weather big changes like this. “Everything goes back to the data and data sources,” Vasani said, “Menu data is significantly slowed down, but that’s compensated for with cooking platforms.”

On the other hand Jason Cohen, Founder and CEO of Analytical Flavor Systems, thinks the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns are a big deal. “Companies will say, ‘no no no, we can make predictions,'” Cohen said, “I do not believe that. This is the most rapid and intense change to consumer behavior since World War II.”

Cohen believes that with quarantines already in place for more than 60 days, new habits will definitely have formed. People will still be baking bread at home. What’s important is to meet this new data where it lives, literally.

Up until the pandemic, Analytical Flavor Systems used a 50 person panel of tasters as part of its data collection. This panel would come into the office to try various on-market foods. But since lockdown, the company has moved entirely to at-home testing. “In addition to CPG products, we are asking them to taste profile their homemade bread and soups,” Cohen said, “The point is we need to see those flavors, aromas and textures they are exposing themselves to.”

Cohen doesn’t think that past data is invalidated, but rather that data needs to be collected before during and after this crisis. Something which I think Vasani would agree with.

The thing about predictions now is that we won’t know if they were accurate for a long time. SpoonShot looks out 18 months and is even considering pushing that out to two years.

Hopefully we’ll be able to eat bread at a restaurant again by then.

With Moscow Store-Within-a-Store, Zippin Shows New Solution for Grocers to Go Cashierless

Zippin announced today that it has opened its first cashierless store-within-a-store at a Azbuka Vkusa supermarket in Moscow. While this marks further international expansion for Zippin, the bigger story is that Azbuka Vkusa’s implementation could model a half-step into cashierless — and contactless — checkout for big grocery store chains.

Zippin is among the many startups making cashierless checkout for retail, which allow shoppers to walk into a store, grab what they want, and go, getting charged automatically as they exit. Zippin’s approach is similar to Amazon Go’s in that it uses a combination of both cameras and shelf sensors to monitor what people take. Last year, Zippin launched its pre-fab Cube, which has all the pieces and technology to make it easier for a store to open up a pop-up cashierless store-within-a-store.

But real estate in an urban environment like Moscow is at a premium, so rather than carving out floor space for a Zippin Cube, Azbuka Vkusa converted one of its existing aisles into a mini-store. The market cordoned off one end, installed cameras on the ceiling, retrofitted the existing shelves with sensors and installed a special QR code-scanning turnstile. Azbuka did all of the implementation with Zippin managing the process remotely.

What makes this interesting is that it’s a proof of concept for big grocery store chains looking to get into cashierless checkout. Grocery stores are like battleships; they can’t turn on a dime, and retrofitting an entire store takes a lot of time and resources, both of which are in short supply during this COVID-19 pandemic.

But the ability to carve out a small part of an existing store, retrofit existing shelves, and stock it with a mix of popular items people want to grab quickly could split the difference. This would allow bigger stores to start implementing cashierless without massive overhauls.

In addition to providing more convenience for shoppers, cashierless checkout is also contactless, an important word in the time of COVID-19. “Since [the] pandemic broke out, we’ve seen a clear increase in inbound inquiries,” Zippin CEO Krishna Motukri told me by phone this week, “The contactless aspect of it is a huge bonus, and probably the main driver of it now.”

Grocery stores are definitely investing in new ways to protect their frontline workers right now and a cashierless section could be an arrow in that particular quiver.

Zippin’s new Moscow location is the latest news in what has been a busy couple of weeks for the cashierless checkout space. Last week, Shopic raised $7.6 million for its tech solution, and this week, Standard Cognition acquired Italian startup, Checkout Technologies.

It’s a pretty safe bet that there is more news on the way as grocers and other retailers experiment and implement new ways of coaxing a nervous public back into their stores.

Botrista Raised $4M Seed Round for its Cloud-Connected Drink Machine

Botrista, which makes the automated, cloud-connected drink dispensing DrinkBot, raised $4 million in Seed funding earlier this year, which has not been previously reported. Botrista Co-Founder and CEO, Sean Hsu shared the news with The Spoon by phone this week, and said the company has raised $4.55 million to date.

For those in need of a refresher, here’s how we described Botrista when covering them last August:

Drinkbot is a hardware/software solution for restaurants looking to expand their drink options. The dispensing hardware connects to a library of hundreds of drink recipes (mocktails, juices, fusion teas, etc) in Botrista’s cloud, and restaurants can choose anywhere from 6 – 20 drinks they want to serve at a given time.

In addition to giving restaurants a single machine that could dispense all kinds of mocktails, one of the hooks with the service was that the actual DrinkBot was free. Restaurants buy the ingredients through Botrista and pay per drink ($1.40 – $1.90 each).

Hsu told me that the company’s model has evolved somewhat. The hardware is still free, but now there is a monthly service fee associated with the device in order to maintain it.

According Hsu, Botrista’s free hardware model is paying off. He says that the company now has 20 customers across Northern California, and that the model has been able to generate a profit. But Botrista, like everything else on the planet, was negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The first month was horrible,” Hsu said, “Because our main customers are restaurants.” But, he said that many of their restaurants adapted with delivery and brought some of that business back. “We got almost 40 percent of our business back,” Hsu said.

Given what’s happened with the restaurants and their uncertain future, Hsu said that Botrista has accelerated its self-service option. This new line of business would be for offices that want to offer employees fresh juices. While this could be a nice perk for employees, there are bigger, more existential questions about the role of actually working in an office going forward as well.

While it remains to be seen exactly what dining out (or office work) will look like, Botrista’s low up-front cost model and fresh capital could help it weather the coronavirus upheavals.

Ahold Delhaize Launches Cleaning Bot Challenge to Find a Robot Floor Scrubber

Ahold Delhaize is on the lookout for a floor scrubbing robot, and it wants your help. Well, it wants your help if you’re a small startup that already has an existing prototype or MVP of a floor cleaning robot.

The Dutch grocery giant’s AI for Retail (AIRLab) unit kicked off the Cleaning Bot Challenge today in an effort to automate the process of cleaning store floors. Ahold Delhaize described the problem in a post kicking off the challenge:

In supermarkets, floors are cleaned once a day before each store opens. It takes cleaning personnel an average of two hours every morning to sweep the floors for dirt, mop the hard-to-reach corners, and then go through the store with a ride-on floor scrubber. It is certainly both a time-consuming and labor-intensive activity. 

Ahold Delhaize’s AI for Retail (AIR) Lab is, thus, looking for a partner that can automate this process by creating an autonomous cleaning robot.

To be considered for the Cleaning Bot Challenge, participants must have a team of at least two co-founders and have an existing prototype of the robot. That robotic solution must be able to scale and the founders must be able to pitch their product in Dutch or English.

It’s not surprising that Ahold Delhaize is looking to automate cleaning its floors. Repetitive, manual tasks like floor scrubbing are perfect for robots. And in the age of COVID-19, cleaning is more important than ever, so you want to ensure the process is consistent and repeatable (two more robot attributes).

It’s also not surprising because Ahold Delhaize has basically gone all-in on robots. Last year the company’s GIANT/MARTIN’s and Stop & Shop stores ordered 500 aisle roaming robots to scan for messes on the floor. Ahold Delhaize has also partnered with Takeoff to build robotic micro-fulfillment centers at some of its retail locations. And Stop & Shop even installed a Breadbot at one of its locations.

What is a little surprising, is that given all of these robo-connections and experience, the company is holding a public contest to find a floor cleaning robot, especially since there are already floor scrubbing robots on the market. A year ago, Walmart announced it was deploying Brain Corp.’s autonomous floor scrubbing robots to 1,500 of its locations.

Were none of these solutions sufficient? What was lacking from existing robot partners that spurred a global hunt for something better? We reached out to Ahold Delhaize to find out more.

In the meantime, if you have a cleaning bot up your sleeve, you have until July 7 to complete your application.

Miso Robotics Partners with PathSpot for More Automated Hygiene in Restaurants

If it’s one thing we’ve all learned during this pandemic, it’s the importance of hand washing. And one group of people in particular you want washing their hands frequently are restaurant workers.

To help restaurants ensure that the people handling your food are properly handling their hygiene, Miso Robotics announced a partnership with PathSpot today in a move the companies say will “advance sterile and healthy cooking environments.”

Miso Robotics is the company behind Flippy, the burger-flipping, fry cooking robot, while PathSpot makes a device that lets restaurants scan employees’ hands to ensure proper washing (i.e. no poop hands). The two might not seem like the most obvious bedfellows at first, but both companies are the in the business of automating kitchen processes.

At first, the Miso/PathSpot relationship will be around cross-selling. So any discussion Miso has with a potential QSR client could include the addition of a PathSpot device. But Dr. Ryan Sinnet, CTO of Miso Robotics told me by phone this week that the agreement is multi-stage and as it progresses there will be opportunities for dataflow and other technological integrations between the two systems.

Today’s announcement follows a partnership Miso announced in March of this year with PopID to install thermal imaging cameras at a Caliburger location (all three companies count Cali Group as an investor). These thermal cameras will take the temperature of customers, employees and delivery people entering the restaurant to detect if anyone has a fever. In addition to these fever scanning capablities, the PopID kiosks can be used for contactless payment which relies only on facial recognition.

While all of these technologies have been around for a couple of years, they could find accelerated interest in a post-COVID-19 world. As restaurants start to re-open in some parts of the country, they are doing so with new regulations meant to help prevent any potential resurgence of the virus. Scanning employees for fevers and their hands for cleanliness, using a robot to cook food and having customers pay with their face may have seemed downright dystopian just a few months ago. But in a post-pandemic world, they may be the new normal to try and protect wary customers and tentative businesses.

Macco Robotics’ New “DBot” Modular Restaurant Robot Delivers Food and Disinfects

As restaurants around the world begin the process of re-opening, some of the (many) issues they will have to grapple with is keeping their establishments clean and reducing human-to-human contact. Macco Robotics wants to do both with its forthcoming Dbot.

The “D” in Dbot actually does double duty in this case, as it stands for “disinfect” and “delivery” (duh). The main part of the Dbot is a mobile base on wheels that uses lidar and computer vision to autonomously map out and navigate around the inside of a restaurant. Different modules can be attached to the top of the base, such as a sprayer, which mists out disinfectant, and a tray module for carrying food and drinks to tables.

This means a restaurant could spend its open hours shuttling food to customers without human servers (reducing a vector of transmission), and then turn into a sprayer at the end of the day. (Macco said that the robot can also be controlled manually, should a location require disinfecting in hard-to-reach places.)

It is this modularity, according to Macco Robotics’ CTO Kishhanth Renganathan, that will make Dbot stand out in what is becoming the quickly commoditized space of restaurant server robots. “It’s not just a delivery bot,” Renganathan said to me over the phone this week, “You are just buying one robot for two different applications.”

But will this flexibility be enough to entice cash-strapped restaurants devastated by the global pandemic and ensuing lockdowns? Bear Robotics’ Penny offers a swappable tray system, but there’s no reason it couldn’t offer some kind of sterilizer add-on. And if restaurants want a robot with a proven track record, they may look more towards Kennon Robotics in China, which has 6,000 robots already in use in restaurants and other hospitality venues.

If a restaurant wants to go with robots, what it chooses may just come down to price. Keenon’s robot can be leased for roughly $1,500 – $1,600 a month. Renganathan said that Macco will offer a lease as well, though pricing was not set yet.

In addition to swappable functions, another thing that sets the Dbot apart is how it fits in with Macco’s long-term vision. The company’s ultimate goal is to make a full-on, autonomous robotic restaurant experience. The Kime will one day leave its stationary kiosk to become a free-wheeling chef, and will hand off food to the Dbot, which will take it out to the tables. No human contact at all.

That vision is still off in the distance, though, and we need to get through this pandemic first. For restaurants planning on re-opening this summer, the Dbot will be available starting in July/August of this year.

Shopic Raises $7.6 Million Series A for its Cashierless Checkout Tech

Shopic, and Israel-based startup that creates cashierless checkout solutions for medium to large grocery stores, announced today that it has raised a $7.6 million Series A round of funding. The round was led by IBI Tech Fund, with participation from existing investor Entrée Capital, and brings the company’s total funding so far to $11 million.

Cashierless checkout systems use computer vision, shelf sensors and artificial intelligence to allow shoppers to walk in to a store, grab what they want and leave, getting charged automatically as they exit.

We weren’t familiar with Shopic before the company emailed us their announcement this morning. Based on Shopic’s website, it appears that unlike other cashierless checkout startups, Shopic’s system does not rely on retrofitting a store with banks of computer vision cameras to monitor what shoppers purchase. Instead, it looks like Shopic uses a shopper’s mobile phone, which they use to scan items as they shop, and there is a component that monitors the shopping cart itself to ensure that there is no shoplifting.

Shopic also allows stores to communicate back to the customer as they shop. So, based on what someone is buying, the store could offer enhanced product information or push customized sales and promotions in real time. Shopic also says its system can also help stores optimize shelf stocking and in-store behavior.

With its fresh round of capital, Shopic says that it will expand deployments of is platform to existing and new customers across Europe and North America, though it will be facing plenty of competition.

Amazon is big pioneer of cashierless checkout with its Go and Go Grocery stores. A host of startups also offer solutions to supermarkets around the world. Trigo, Grabango and Zippin all use Amazon-like systems of cameras and computer vision to keep track of what people are buying. But Shopic seems to be more of a blend between the mobile phone aspect of Swiftly and the cart monitoring of Caper.

Shopic’s fundraise has also come at a unique time. The COVID-19 global pandemic is re-shaping the grocery store experience as retailers attempt to reduce human-to-human contact. As such, preventative measures like facemasks are being worn by store employees and plexiglass shields are going up in front of cashiers.

But at some point, for the people who aren’t too scared to go into the grocery stores themselves, a contactless cashierless checkout might be the best option. You don’t have to interact with a cashier or touch a credit card terminal that potentially hundreds of other people have touched that day.

For sure, there are still questions around equity and jobs that go along with widescale adoption of cashierless checkout. But as the virus continues its rampage and even resurges in some areas, grocery retailers could accelerate more contactless options like cashierless checkout to keep shoppers and workers safe.

An earlier version of this story said Shopic had raised a total of $8.45 million, based on data in Crunchbase. Shopic got in touch with us and provided the accurate dollar figure.

API Tech Bringing Smart Pizza Vending Machines From Europe to the U.S.

We were watching the vending machine space closely before the pandemic, because of their increasing ability to create high-quality food in very small footprints. But ever since COVID-19 crashed all over the world, we are paying even closer attention to vending machines because they eliminate person-to-person contact when buying a meal.

There are a number of cool vending machines out there making great food: Yo-Kai Express serves up hot bowls of ramen, Chowbotics makes salads and grain bowls, Bake Xpress pushes out warm pastries. Now you can add to that list API Tech’s Smart Pizza machines, which, as you can probably guess, deliver hot pizza into your paws in under three minutes.

Smart Pizza makes standalone vending machine that can hold up 96 par-baked pizzas. Once a pizza is ordered either through a built-in touchscreen or on a mobile app, the pizza gets a final cook using a proprietary oven before being boxed up and dispensed.

Spoon readers might recall another pizza vending machine coming to market made by Basil Street. But unlike Basil Street, which makes the Automated Pizza Kitchen (APK), API Tech is an industrial automation company and does not make any of its own pizzas. The machine is sold to food companies, which can then stock it with whatever types of pizza they choose. The system menu can handle up to 200 different pizza recipes, with the operator determining the prices for each flavor.

Detlev Goedbloed, Business Development Manager USA at API Tech told me by phone this week that another differentiator for the Smart Pizza machine is the way it cooks. The companies proprietary heating system can change up the cook program based on the pizza. So if you have a pizza with fresh food on top (like pineapple) the oven will heat just the bottom; but for something like a plain cheese pizza, it can heat the top as well. Goedbloed also said the Smart Pizza’s oven allows the final product to have a crisp, pizzeria-like crust.

Because the Smart Pizza machine stores pizza that is not frozen, pies can only last for a couple of days in the machine before they need to be removed. Basil Street’s APKs store frozen pizzas, so they can last for a month inside the machine.

API Tech is headquartered in Nancy, France and right now has 223 Smart Pizza vending machines across Europe and the UK. Last year the company placed its first two machines in the U.S., one in California and one in Florida. API Tech sells the machines outright at a cost of $68,000 and is currently working on expanding its presence in America.

Perhaps most important right now, given the state of the world, is the fact that these machines can operate without a human (except for the restocking bit). Customers don’t even need to touch the machine to order or pay as that can be done through an accompanying app. These will be valuable attributes in a post-pandemic world, and definitely something we’ll be watching closely over the coming year.

Delivery ‘Bots from Starship and Postmates Spotted in the Wild on Both Coasts

We’ve been covering the acceleration of robots being rolled out for contactless food deliveries in different cities across the country. As these li’l rover ‘bots become more public, the public is catching their first glimpse of, and shooting video of, our food delivery future.

Starship recently started making restaurant and grocery deliveries in Chevy Chase, VA. That’s where Jake Tapper, host of CNN’s State of the Union caught not one but two Starship robots scurrying about in the rain and posted a video of them to Twitter.

Tapper wrote “I assume for food delivery? Still a bit @blackmirror,” which struck us as a bit odd. Black Mirror is the sci-fi anthology TV series that shows the dark side of our reliance/addiction to technology. But Tapper seems to be ignoring the fact that we are already living in the darkest timeline where human-to-human contact is fraught with anxiety and potentially danger, and technology like autonomous robots can actually be useful and could save lives.

As a reminder for Mr. Tapper, robots don’t get sick, won’t inadvertently cough on your broccoli and can help get food to people who may not be able to otherwise leave home. Not everything about robots is perfect, obviously. Robot companies like Starship are charging restaurants big commissions that might be unsustainable, and there are always are big, societal questions about automation and the cost of human jobs. But right now, we should absolutely be experimenting with more self-driving deliveries.

Over the West Coast, friend of The Spoon, Mike R., saw the Postmates Serve robot cruising down a Los Angeles city street. With its lit up eyes and bright color, the cheery robot certainly seemed to fit in with sunny California vibe. An “On Delivery” message displayed on its screen to let passers by know it was on a job as it quietly rolled on its own down the sidewalk (followed, appropriately enough, by someone on a scooter wearing a facemask).

Postmates Serve Robot Out on Delivery

For those living in the middle of the country, fret not. Self-driving delivery robots won’t be relegated to the coasts. Up in Ann Arbor, MI, Refraction’s REV-1 is making lunch and grocery deliveries. And Starship is eyeing Frisco, TX among the next cities to get its robot delivery service.

If you see robots running around your town, please shoot a picture or a video and share it with us!

Just in Time for a Contactless World, Keenon Robotics has 6,000 Food Server Robots Already in Action

As restaurants across the country start to reopen, one question we’ve been asking is, assuming people will even want to go back into restaurants, how will they want to be served? Will customers want their server to wear a mask or not wear a mask? Which is less off-putting?

Another third option that may become increasingly common is having a robot server in your restaurant. Autonomous robots can shuttle food and empty dishes to and from the kitchen, they don’t get fevers and they’ll never cough anywhere near you or your food.

One company making such robots is China’s Keenon Robotics, which launched its first server robots back in 2016. Keenon’s robots use both 3D mapping and specially coded stickers mounted on ceilings to navigate. A camera pointing up on the robot sees the sticker and determines its route. The robots also feature obstacle detection and automated stopping so they don’t bump into people. Robots can be leased for $1,500 – $1,600 a month.

Other players in the space include Bear Robotics and PuduTech, but what sets Keenon apart is scale. Of the 9,000 robots Keenon has operational around the world, 6,000 are already in the hotel and restaurant industry. Simi Wang, the Director of Global Sales at Keenon Robotics, told me by phone this week that the company can produce 30,000 robots this year.

The question now is, will that be too many robots… or too little?

Keenon certainly seems to be filling its pipeline. The company has partnerships with Burger King in China, the Haidilao hot pot restaurant chain, and recently entered into an agreement with Chinese delivery service Meituan Dianping to create a new contactless restaurant.

Will there be that same demand for server robots here in the U.S.? When I spoke with Bear Robotics’ CEO last month, he said that there was definitely more inbound interest in his robots. He attributed this increased interest to customers wanting more transparency into who has touched their food. But again, we’re at the very beginning stages of restaurants coming back online, so we don’t know how much people will actually care.

Pre-COVID, the labor crunch was a big factor for restaurants considering a robotic workforce. Casual and quick service restaurants in particular had huge churn rates. With so many people out of work, and so many fewer restaurants still operational, the economics of human labor won’t be as much of an issue. The question now will just be how much people trust other people to handle their food.