Doordash unveils DOT, its independent robot that has been created to deliver your food

On Tuesday, DOORDASH unveiled Dot, a small robot that he built at home can independently drive on roads, cycling and sidewalks to connect food and small packages at a speed of up to 20 miles per hour. DOT is designed to look friendly and even cartoon – in bright red, with big LED eyes and a swing open to detect the place where your food is carrying – although I claim it is a little creeping.

Doordash says he is already testing a robot with early arrival partners in the Phoenix Metropolitan region, and plans to make it available to the 1.6 million people of the region by the end of 2025.

It may seem strange to the dining delivery application such as Doordash to compete with trillion dollars such as Google and Tesla on an independent vehicle technology (AV). In San Francisco, Austin and cities across the country, robotics is already common to many population. Doordash argues that a similar account will come to the food delivery space, and that the size and design of DOT is the key.

The risks are high for this gentle small robot (terrifying?). County of startups in the AV space has been launched, with some even Facing penalties and fines When their machines caused harm. Robotaki also has also a symbol of the broader automation of silicon – and the goal of general anger. It was wamos SabotageIt is easy to imagine the points will become the next symbol of this tension.

On Monday at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco, co -founder of DooDash Stanley Tang told reporters that independent submission delivery and cities could become a large market. Tang said that the key to robots in delivery is to move in “the first ten feet and others,” in reference to capture and ridicule. Psychology, such as those developed by companies such as companies Robotics serviceThis challenge is dealt with negotiating with narrow spaces, but they cannot drive on the roads or at high speeds such as DOT.

“You don’t always need a full -sized car to offer a tube of toothpaste or a bundle of diapers,” said Tang. “Dot is specially designed for millions of delivery processes that we facilitate every day. It’s small enough to move in entrances and corridors, quickly enough to maintain food quality, and smart enough to improve the best ways to deliver.”

Dot has four wheels and is less than five feet and three feet width. It is about the tenth of the size of the car and weighs 350 lbs. Press a button on what can only be described as a “mouth”, and enough charging space is detected to fit six pizza boxes or up to 30 lbs of food. There is a lot of input that traders can put in a point to meet their needs, including cup owners and coolers.

There is also the LED ribbon above the car to display the text, and the loudspeakers from which the sound of a roboty can emit. Doordash says that there is even a microphone on Dot, which can one day be used to facilitate the same conversations between customers and Dot.

Each unit works on a switch battery that can be shipped separately. The company says this was a major design feature for the separation of vehicle storage and charging.

For navigation, Dot uses eight external cameras, along with four radars and three Lidar sensors to detect obstacles. Doordash says the cameras are integrated into the actual time intelligence model that combines deep algorithms in learning and researching to find the best way to customers.

The company has spent the past seven years in construction towards Dot. Once again in 2019, Doordash I got AV Startup Scotty LabsAnd it brought the founders to start the start of another AV, LVL 5.

In an interview with Techcrunch, Rege says early DooRdash with legislators on DOT was positive. He says that city officials and state state described the delivery of small cars as a way to reduce traffic congestion.

Human delivery workers may be less enthusiastic. In a press release, Doordash says that humans are still benefiting by a vast majority of their daily orders, while automation will allow some “more focus on high value orders that require human rule and care.”

Another obstacle to a point is safety. Rege says that Dot is trained to be confirmed to bike and pedestrian passengers, while they are large enough to be visible to drivers.

If the point has a problem on the road, Rege says the points cannot be turned away from humans. Doordash believes that Telepertation is not the right approach to DOT, and instead, he train her to wait simply and withdraw to the side of the road (although this is easier than doing it in some cases). Rege says the field operator will be sent to the point in dangerous circumstances.

In Phoenix, Doordash has created an environmental system to support its small fleet of points: warehouses to store robots, charge stations to fill their batteries, and their field operators to clean and save them. Rege refused to disclose the number of employees or the costs of this ecosystem.

It is very similar to the people who destroyed them, and it seems that people will try to tamper with points. Doordash says it included a camera inside a Dot charging space, in part to ensure that young people are not climbing at home. Dot is also light enough to be raised by a few people, but Rege says that field operators can turn them in a straight position if this happens at all.

Although Dot may look fun, it is a dangerous and huge pledge for Doordash. The company will definitely overcome Uber and Instacart Marketing in independent delivery vehicles. DOT can reshape the Doordash position in the delivery market, but it may also provide a wide range of new challenges.