UberEats is rolling out a fleet of self-driving delivery robots in Miami

 

These little robots are venturing out of a university setting for the first time.

Uber Eats is rolling out a fleet of autonomous delivery bots in Miami

These little robots are venturing outside a university environment for the first time.
 
On Thursday, Uber announced a partnership with robotics maker Cartken that will send a fleet of miniature autonomous robots to Miami, Florida. However, these small vehicles won't carry people, just snacks.
Based in Oakland, California, and started by a team of former Google engineers, Cartken already uses its six-wheeled automated delivery vehicles delivering food and other small items to several college campuses. But as The Verge notes, Uber says this will be the "first formal partnership with a global on-demand delivery app beyond" universities.
[Related: Uber's latest goals involve more deliveries and more EVs.]
 
Cartken's line of small, all-electric automated delivery vehicles are manufactured by auto supplier Manga and can haul approximately 24 pounds of items in their freight yard. While clock speeds are only slightly slower than pedestrians, a built-in camera system allows the robots to maneuver around obstacles and adapt in real time to their surroundings. Each Cart Kern robot can deliver within a radius of several miles depending on battery replacement, making them ideal for relatively small areas like school campuses and Miami's Dad eland mall complex, where they'll debut Uber Eats on Thursday ahead of possible expansions. Throughout the county. And in other cities. Uber has been openly pursuing automated ride and delivery services for years, though the road to achieving that goal has been far from easy. In 2018, an Uber autonomous car in Arizona struck and killed a pedestrian, at least temporarily disrupting the company's goals to fully automate fleets. Earlier this month, the company appears to have restarted plans through the introduction of self-driving cab options in Las Vegas alongside plans to expand to Los Angeles, though one humane safety driver will remain behind the wheel for now.
 
[Related: Study Shows Automation's Impact on Workers' Wages.]
 
While potentially convenient for hungry consumers, the Uber-Cartken team belies the broader industry goals of increased automation. A reduced need for human labor is directly related to profitable advances in artificial intelligence and robotics. Companies like Uber are literally aiming to make this automation cheaper and faster than their current employees. Cartken's fleet may be pretty to look at on sidewalks and roaming campuses, but every additional robot is potentially one less delivery job for a cash-strapped gig-economy worker.
 
Earlier this year, Uber also announced a partnership with Euro, maker of a much larger self-driving road vehicle capable of delivering about 24 bags of groceries at a time to customers in Houston, Texas, and Mountain View, Calif.