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Serve Robotics opens developer portal to its sidewalk delivery fleet
Serve Robotics is launching an AV Delivery Developer Portal so third parties and small businesses can dispatch its sidewalk robots without going through food-delivery apps, The Verge reported.
- New headline Was: “Serve Robotics wants to democratize sidewalk delivery robots”
- Our desk filed its story
Serve Robotics is opening a developer portal so third-party engineers, independent businesses and autonomous software agents can dispatch its sidewalk delivery robots without going through major food-delivery apps, The Verge reported Wednesday1.
The company is launching what it calls an AV Delivery Developer Portal for a fleet of about 2,000 robots that operate on sidewalks1. Serve told The Verge that anyone in the roughly 150 neighborhoods where it currently runs can use a robot for deliveries1.
Serve was spun out of Postmates in 2021 and has made Uber Eats deliveries in Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas and other cities, using robots that resemble autonomous shopping carts, according to The Verge1. The company says the machines have a top speed of about 6 mph and travel mainly on sidewalks1.
In an interview with The Verge, Serve CEO Ali Kashani said opening the platform is meant to reduce reliance on large delivery apps and to keep robots occupied between lunch and dinner1. "The reality of food delivery platforms is that usually they dominate their markets," Kashani said1.
Kashani told The Verge that API requests will be treated the same as enterprise orders until a robot is already on a delivery1. For small merchants, he said pay-per-delivery or hourly reservation options would cost a fraction of human-powered delivery1. Developers would supply pickup and drop-off coordinates while Serve handles routing, obstacle avoidance and remote teleoperation, the report said1.
The Verge said delivery apps such as DoorDash and Uber Eats typically take a 15 percent to 30 percent cut of orders, and that Serve's pitch is that bakeries, florists, pharmacies and similar shops could add robot delivery on their own sites without those fees1. Suggested uses also included intra-office shuttles, parts runs and peer-to-peer exchanges1.
The developer platform follows Serve's earlier statement that it does not plan to renew its Uber Eats partnership, The Verge reported, citing Axios1. Serve said employee approval will still gate access to prevent hazardous deployments or illicit cargo, and that liability for stolen or broken goods will depend on how each partnership is priced and insured1. Kashani said Serve does not intend to expand into street-based delivery vehicles soon1.
