The Southport restaurant in Italian chain Gnocchi Gnocchi Brothers has kicked off Australia’s first walking robot delivery, a pilot service operated by Serve Robotics and DoorDash.
Customers ordering through DoorDash can choose to have their order delivered by a Serve robot, which travels on the footpath at walking pace and gives way to pedestrians.
They will receive a notification when it arrives, along with a unique code to open the robot’s secure compartment and collect their order. Trained remote supervisors can assist the robot if needed and each robot displays a contact number for members of the public with questions.
Ben Cleary-Corradini, co-founder of Gnocchi Gnocchi Brothers, is excited about the project.
“At Gnocchi Gnocchi Brothers we’ve always embraced technology and innovation to make great food more accessible and convenient for our customers. We see this as an exciting glimpse into the future of food delivery and customer service, particularly for our Pronto takeaway-focused stores,” he said.
The project is part of DoorDash’s broader delivery strategy utilising different technologies to fulfil orders within short distances, in relatively dense, urban areas.
At the end of each shift, robots will return to the operations depot at Griffith University, the first university to host a Serve operations team. Serve and Griffith are exploring internship and early-career opportunities for Griffith students and graduates in robotics, autonomy operations and field engineering.
This pilot is the first time Serve has extended its service beyond the US.
