Serve Robotics wants to democratize sidewalk delivery robots

Serve Robotics is opening up its platform to make its autonomous last-mile delivery robots available to anyone who wants to use them. The company is launching a new AV Delivery Developer Portal, enabling third-party software engineers, independent businesses, and even autonomous AI agents to access its fleet of 2,000 sidewalk robots.

With this new capability, third-party developers and interested small businesses can use Serve’s software tools to dispatch robots directly without relying on major food delivery companies, like Uber Eats. Now, anyone who lives in one of the 150 neighborhoods where the company currently operates can employ a sidewalk robot for deliveries.

Serve, which was spun out of the app-based delivery company Postmates in 2021, has been making Uber Eats deliveries in Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, and dozens of other cities for several years now, using robots that look like autonomous shopping carts. Serve says its delivery robots can be a safer alternative to cars and help reduce traffic congestion since they operate mainly on sidewalks. Since the robots have a top speed of around 6 mph, there’s little to no risk to pedestrians.

In an interview with The Verge, Serve CEO Ali Kashani explained that opening the platform keeps the company from relying too much on big delivery apps, while also keeping the robots busy between the lunch and dinner rushes.

“The reality of food delivery platforms is that usually they dominate their markets,” Kashani said. “Food is generally very picky. So you have lunch, you have dinner. But then there are times in between. So again, having that diversification helps.”

“Food is generally very picky. So you have lunch, you have dinner. But then there are times in between. So again, having that diversification helps.”

— Serve CEO Ali Kashani

By turning the fleet into what Kashani describes as an open marketplace, Serve’s robots will treat API requests the same as enterprise orders. “There’s no preferential treatment at the end of the day,” he said. “Until the robot is on a delivery, it doesn’t have a commitment to anybody.”

For small merchants, Kashani says the pay-per-delivery or hourly reservation options will undercut human-powered delivery services: “This would be a fraction of that cost.” Serve’s pitch also extends to intra-office shuttles, repair shops ferrying parts, and peer-to-peer exchanges like Facebook Marketplace. Developers supply the pickup and dropoff coordinates while Serve’s back end orchestrates obstacle avoidance, routing, and remote teleoperation supervision. Instead of hiring couriers or sending junior staff across town, businesses could program Serve’s robots to shuttle items between offices.

For Kashani, opening fleet access is the next phase in a long-standing crusade against last-mile delivery economics. “Why does getting something delivered from China cost $1, but from Chinatown cost $10?” Kashani said.

The problem is that delivery apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats take a massive 15 percent to 30 percent cut on every order, largely because paying human drivers is expensive. By letting businesses connect directly to its robot fleet through software, Serve allows local shops — like bakeries, florists, and pharmacies — to add robot delivery straight to their own websites and checkout registers without paying those steep middleman fees.

It’s better economics for Serve, too. Kashani connects lower per-delivery costs directly to fleet utilization and scale, arguing that expanding demand beyond peak restaurant hours into off-peak hours and new use cases drives overall operating and hardware costs down for everyone.

The developer platform comes on the heels of Serve’s announcement that it doesn’t plan to renew its partnership with Uber Eats, echoing similar moves across the transportation industry to build independent platforms.

Yet sidewalk autonomy remains governed by the laws of physics. Serve says access to its robots will still be strictly gated by manual approval by Serve’s employees to prevent hazardous deployments or illicit cargo. Liability on stolen or broken goods will also be subject to how individual partnerships are priced and insured, Kashani noted.

And don’t expect 50-pound sidewalk robots to morph into full-size vehicles. Kashani remains adamant that Serve won’t morph into a street-based delivery service anytime soon. If software developers want to automate the sidewalk, Serve will gladly sell them the wheels.

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• Andrew J. Hawkins