Autonomous robot takeaway delivery arrives in Tokyo

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Uber Eats is launching a new autonomous robot delivery service on the streets of Tokyo. If you live or work in the busy Nihonbashi district, you can order food on your smartphone and have it delivered by a little green self-driving robot. Uber Eats Japan, collaborating with Mitsubishi Electric and delivery robotics firm Cartken, announced the launch of the autonomous delivery robot service starting March 6. Uber Eats already has an autonomous delivery service in several locations in North America and has chosen Japan as the second country to start its service. Alvin Oo, Director of Market Operations of Uber Eats Japan says that they are testing the service in the Nihonbashi district of Tokyo. “Robots are just another form of delivery method. So we have bicycles, motorbikes, cars in Japan. Delivery robots would be another form of delivery. Again we are testing. We are finding out which area will be suitable. For now, we are testing in Nihonbashi area. We believe that the sidewalks and everything is going to be suitable.” At a demonstration event, the little green robot whizzed across sidewalks and crosswalks dodging pedestrians. Its mission was to deliver a meal to a demonstrator who had just put in an order on his smartphone. The autonomous vehicles work during the weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., starting with several partnered restaurants in the Nihonbashi area at first, but they hope to expand the service in the future, says Oo. The robot can move up to the speed of 5.4 kilometers per hour and stop automatically avoiding collisions with people and obstacles using its sensors. Back at HQ, a team of humans is monitoring the robot's activities via cameras embedded in the robot, explains Oo. “The robot is autonomous, so you actually don’t need the operator. It can run by itself. It can know where to go once you upload the map location. It can navigate how to get there. But there’s always human operators in the background, watching the robots to ensure that any events or any emergencies, there’s a quick response. So robots are out there, but human in the back, so it’s very safe operations.” This article was provided by The Associated Press.