(Reuters) – Serve Robotics said on Wednesday it was rolling out its sidewalk delivery robot services in Miami, marking its first expansion to the East Coast as part of its goal to deploy 2,000 robots across the United States by the end of 2025.
Serve is also strengthening its partnership with fast-food chain Shake Shack and signing on pizzeria Mister O1 Extraordinary Pizza as a new client, as part of its entry into the market.
Customers who place orders on Uber Eats from select Shake Shack and Mister O1 locations in the Brickell and Miami Beach neighborhoods will receive some upcoming orders through Serve’s autonomous delivery robots, the company said.
San Francisco-based Serve is currently operational in Los Angeles and its planned expansion to the Dallas-Fort Worth market is underway, with the rollout expected by the end of the second quarter.
“Everywhere you go, the environment is a little bit different… We had some learnings about how to adapt and train our models when we go to a new location (from our experience in Los Angeles), and we’re employing the same playbook here,” co-founder and CEO Ali Kashani said in an interview.
Serve will also partner with more local restaurants in Miami, Kashani said.
The company has been scaling up its operations to become the go-to automation tech supplier for restaurants. It struck a deal in November to acquire Vebu, the company behind the avocado processing robot ‘Autocado’ seen at burrito chain Chipotle Mexican Grill.
Serve has an agreement with Uber Eats to deploy 2,000 robots by the end of this year. In November, the company saw a 97% year-on-year increase in daily active robots for the September-ended quarter.
(Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
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