Yandex has entered into a cooperation agreement with the American food delivery service Grubhub. The company will partner with a robotic delivery service on campuses – college and university campuses in the United States. The delivery will be carried out by the Rovers, autonomous robotic couriers developed by Yandex.
Rovers will be part of a platform that Grubhub has developed specifically for university campuses. It was created taking into account the needs of their inhabitants – for example, ordered food can be paid for with a student or teacher card. It will be possible to interact with courier robots through the Grubhub application. For example, when the Rover with the order approaches its destination, the person will receive a push message, and the “Open lid” button will appear in the application.
Grubhub now serves over 250 campuses across the United States. In some of them, courier robots will appear this year. Often campuses have a large area with many pedestrian zones. Rovers move along sidewalks and footpaths and will be able to bring orders to places that cannot be reached by car.
Sean Eire, the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Grubhub has been quoted in the Yandex press release:
When we thought about delivery by robots, we formulated two main requirements for a partner. First, it must be an advanced technology company. Second, she must have enough experience and resources to scale her solution. Yandex suited us according to both criteria. Thanks to cooperation with Yandex, we will be able to offer colleges and universities an even higher level of service.
Courier robots are based on the same technologies as Yandex unmanned vehicles. They can work day and night, in rain and snow. Rovers drive on sidewalks and use regulated and unregulated pedestrian crossings to crossroads.
Over the past six months, robots have brought thousands of orders from Yandex.Food and Yandex.Lavka services in Moscow. Since the end of last year, delivery by Yandex.Rover has become available to residents of Innopolis. Since April 2021, they’ve also been delivering restaurant orders in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Last week Yandex.Rover started working in the Leningrad Region.
In April this year, Yandex also announced plans to commence food delivery operations (under YanGo) in Paris and London. You can read about this here.
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