Deliveroo is to begin using pavement robots to deliver takeaways and groceries in the UK, with its first robot deliveries due to take place in London in the coming weeks.
The branded robots will initially operate in Canary Wharf in east London, as well as in Milton Keynes, Leeds, Stockton-on-Tees and Nottingham, all areas where local councils allow robot deliveries.
Miki Kuusi, the chief executive of Deliveroo, said the move was “not about replacing” human riders. “We view it as a complement [to human couriers],” he said. “Certain kinds of deliveries, certain kinds of merchants, certain neighbourhoods and places work better for autonomous deliveries.”
The robots are made by Coco, a US technology firm that has an exclusive deal with Deliveroo. They travel at roughly walking pace and use sensors, cameras and an AI navigation system to move along pavements.
Deliveroo is in talks with more councils across the UK and with the Department for Transport as it seeks permission to use the technology more widely.
Kuusi, 37, said the number of robots would grow as the technology improved, but described it as an “incremental process”. He said: “Especially in high-density, urban environments, you’re always going to need people who do deliveries. It’s more about what the optimal fleet split is.”
Rival platforms are also automating deliveries. Just Eat uses robot couriers made by Starship in some parts of Britain, while Deliveroo is trialling deliveries by airborne drone in Dublin.
Deliveroo was founded in 2013 by the tech entrepreneur Will Shu and was acquired last year by the US delivery group DoorDash in a £2.9bn takeover. Kuusi, who is also DoorDash’s international chief executive, has since sought to make ordering on the platform more affordable and to expand in groceries. On 24 September the company announced a partnership with Aldi.
Kuusi said robots would help to lower costs. “A plastic box on wheels rolling around a city is incredibly energy-efficient, the hardware can be very low-cost, and that ultimately makes the service a lot more affordable,” he said.
He also argued that robot couriers would help local retailers and independent shops compete with international groups such as Amazon and Shein. “It’s not going to some company that’s bringing something over through the airport from the other side of the world, trying to price-compete to death the high street locally,” he said.
The use of pavement robots has drawn objections. In July, the campaign group Living Streets argued that Starship robots used by the Co-op for grocery deliveries presented “a danger to pedestrians”.
Kuusi said: “These are the kind of things where it’s very easy to come up with all the concerns and fears on paper in theory. But then when you actually see these things on the streets and how they work as a part of the city, the reality is that they blend in quite well.”
Deliveroo does not treat the riders who fulfil orders as employees. They are self-employed contractors in law, and critics have argued that the model is exploitative because riders do not receive benefits such as sick pay or pension contributions.
Concerns have also been raised that a feature allowing riders to rent out their accounts to substitutes can be exploited by criminals. Deliveroo has introduced new security features in response.
In France, four campaign groups have sued Deliveroo and Uber Eats, accusing them of “human trafficking” and of making “significant profits by exploiting the vulnerability of these workers”. Both companies deny the claims.
Kuusi said: “If I look at the UK, we’re talking about over 100,000 people that deliver actively on Deliveroo.” He said the company had “had to come up with more sophisticated ways to try to combat malpractice on the platform”, adding: “This is not something we want on the platform.”
