Serve and Uber Eats Extend Sidewalk Delivery Robot Service to Fort Lauderdale
Serve Robotics’ sidewalk delivery robots are now delivering restaurant orders in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in collaboration with Uber Eats.
The robots join those already in operation in Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta, Serve Robotics said in a Friday (Dec. 5) press release.
The company expects to have 2,000 delivery robots operating in the United States by the end of the year, in partnership with Uber Eats, according to the release.
“Building on our success in Miami, the expansion to Fort Lauderdale allows us to serve more communities, support more restaurant partners, and continue scaling our low-emissions delivery network across the region,” Serve Robotics Co-founder and CEO Ali Kashani said in the release.
Aaron Emrich, global head of autonomous delivery at Uber Eats, said in the release: “Fort Lauderdale’s vibrant restaurant scene and tech-forward community make it an ideal market to deepen our collaboration and bring more innovative delivery options to customers.”
Serve Robotics, which was spun out of Uber, envisions autonomous delivery robots transforming urban logistics by optimizing the pickup and delivery of food and other products to lower the cost of last-mile delivery for businesses.
“There’s a lot of other things we can do with these robots once they’re out there,” Kashani told PYMNTS in an interview posted in February. “They’re making the cost of last mile substantially lowered.”
In January, Serve Robotics announced that it secured $86 million in new financing in December 2024 to continue developing its sidewalk delivery robots.
The new capital extended the company’s expected operational runway through the end of 2026. The firm raised a total of $167 million in 2024 and $220 million since becoming an independent company when spun off from Uber in 2021.
“Looking ahead, we believe we are well positioned to continue to scale our operations and enter new markets in 2025 and beyond,” Serve Robotics Chief Financial Officer Brian Read said in a Jan. 6 press release.
In October, the firm partnered with DoorDash to roll out autonomous robot deliveries across the United States, starting in Los Angeles. Serve’s robots are now delivering to some DoorDash customers in Los Angeles, and the service will be expanded to other cities in the coming years.
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