Uber Eats, Avride partner for fully autonomous, robot deliveries

USA – Leading online food delivery platform Uber Eats has signed an exclusive partnership with delivery robot and autonomous vehicle company Avride that will provide customers with the option of having their deliveries fully executed by an Avride delivery robot and autonomous vehicle.

Avride revealed its delivery robots are already in use in several cities in South Korea and the United States.

The robotics startup revealed it is looking to expand its delivery capabilities across the US to fulfill its contractual obligations within the partnership.

In an official statement confirming the partnership, Dmitry Polishchuk, Avride’s CEO, revealed it plans to expand its fleet of robots operating within its partnership with Uber Eats to several hundred by the start of 2025.

Uber Eats has already announced it has already started delivering orders with Avride’s sidewalk in Austin, Texas, as part of the partnership’s initial rollout. The delivery platform revealed its plans to expand to Dallas (also in Texas) and Jersey City, New Jersey, in the next few months.

The delivery platform also revealed the partnership will include robotaxis, although this feature is expected to debut in early 2025.

The partnership is a reflection of Uber Eats’ strategy of working with robotics firms to enhance its delivery services without the use of workers.

In May 2023, Uber signed a collaboration with Serve Robots to deploy 2,000 delivery robots across major US cities.

 In August 2024, Uber Eats entered into a strategic partnership with robotics firm Coco to launch sidewalk-roaming delivery robots in Los Angeles, with the intention of expanding further into other US cities before the end of the year.

However, some market analysts suggest the move to partner with a robotics firm is not only inspired by the need to enhance efficiency but also significantly reduce operations costs.

Uber’s revenue cost has been rising in the US. According to recent financial data, the company’s cost of revenue increased from US$10.8 billion in H1 2023 to US$12.7 billion in 2024.

Intelivita, a market analytics firm, cited the company’s labor-related court cases in California challenging the company’s listing of riders as independent contractors and not employees as part of the reason for the wide adoption of robotics.

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