I saw one a couple of days ago in Zurich Sternen Oerlikon, delivering something. It was scary at first - ugly and intimidating too. Almost 1.5 m tall… This one had wheels …
Are these ‘permitted’ on sidewalks?
If allowed in sidewalks, it should be at average human walking pace. I’d be annoyed if I see one on the streets. When I walk I have to look out for cars, other pedestrians, cyclists, motos, big trucks and now…this? FFS! A negative externality on wheels.
Anything of importance or value can’t be handled by the robot. That leaves menial tasks to the robot. If the kebab is 15 Francs, maybe another 10 for delivery. If 20 deliveries a day, 200 CHF of revenue. Can that kind of revenue pay for the capital investment, refueling, maintenance and insurance of the robot? Humans in bicycles are 0 capital investment and (almost) zero liability for delivery companies, it’s hard to compete with that.
Well … economies of scale will kick in, i imagine … just like delivery trucks, i am guessing that these units will have different compartments to make multiple deliveries within a locality …
the problem that i saw - it was navigating the crowd very very slowly … of course it was at a busy time in the evening, full of people getting on/off trams and buses and many stopping/crowding to look at it. Plus people walk everywhere here on the sidewalk - not like in the US where people (mostly) walk on the right …
At the rate it was going, the food would be cold or the customer will have already eaten something else out of dire necessity …
the video shows no traffic, just how it navigates various terrains …
cool gadget though, but not sure how the delivery or the economics will work out.