{"id":24541,"date":"2019-12-27T17:43:05","date_gmt":"2019-12-27T21:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=24541"},"modified":"2019-12-27T17:43:05","modified_gmt":"2019-12-27T21:43:05","slug":"driverless-robots-in-ann-arbor-seek-piece-of-food-delivery-pie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2019\/12\/driverless-robots-in-ann-arbor-seek-piece-of-food-delivery-pie","title":{"rendered":"Driverless robots in Ann Arbor seek piece of food-delivery pie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Refraction's<\/p>\n<\/div>

Refraction’s REV 1 autonomous food delivery vehicle makes its way down Fourth Street in downtown Ann Arbor, bound for Miss Kim restaurant in Kerrytown to pick up a food order.\u00a0(Photo: Lon Horwedel, Special to The Detroit News)<\/span><\/p>\n

Ann Arbor<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 Self-driving autos\u00a0hold enormous promise for ride-hailing services\u00a0and commercial transportation.<\/p>\n

But the first autonomous vehicle\u00a0you see in practical use might bring you lunch.<\/p>\n

The REV, an autonomous robot made by Refraction AI, will begin making\u00a0meal deliveries from four restaurants to a test group of 300 customers in downtown Ann Arbor beginning Jan. 3. Five feet tall, with three wheels and a fuselage like an oversized bike helmet, the 100-pound REV promises food drops for half the cost of existing delivery services like Grubhub, EatStreet and DoorDash.<\/p>\n

If successful, REV could begin the transformation of downtowns into “Blade Runner”-like metropolises populated by wee bots hustling meal, grocery and document deliveries along byways at 15 mph.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to get autonomous vehicles on the road in a way that\u2019s safe,\u201d Refraction AI CEO\u00a0 Matthew Johnson-Roberson said at the company’s headquarters in downtown Ann Arbor.\u00a0\u201cOur biggest focus is dense, urban areas. At (these) speeds, it\u2019s a safe proposition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The REV program slots in a growing ecosystem of robotic delivery vehicles. Small bots from San Francisco-based Starship can be found on about 15 college campuses making food deliveries, while California start-up Nuro employs car-sized, 2,500-pound grocery delivery vehicles in the Scottsdale and\u00a0Houston\u00a0suburbs.<\/p>\n

These robot companies share business models that Uber and Lyft taxi services are ultimately predicated on: remove the driver and reduce transportation costs dramatically. In the case of REV, that means Refraction only charges restaurants 10-15% of an order, compared to the 30-35% that’s typical of\u00a0its human-piloted delivery competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrubhub costs are unaffordable to us,\u201d said Ji Hye Kim, proprietor of the\u00a0Miss Kim restaurant Ann Arbor, one of the restaurants participating in Refraction\u2019s rollout. \u201cSuch services are basically just for marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Says Johnson-Roberson, who co-founded the company with fellow University of Michigan faculty member\u00a0Ram Vasudevan:\u00a0\u201cWe want to build something that makes the economics work. We\u2019re using affordable hardware. We\u2019re not spending Bentley money to drive around your tacos.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Detroit News followed a demonstration run of REV-1 (shorthand for the first-model Refraction Electric Vehicle) around downtown Ann Arbor on a snowy, frigid day where a customer (a Refraction\u00a0employee) ordered food from Miss Kim about a quarter-mile away.<\/p>\n

Orders are made via phone app. Then REVs are dispatched from their \u201cnest\u201d at Refraction headquarters. Deliveries will be made in 30 minutes within a 2-mile radius from four restaurants including Miss Kim, Belly Deli,\u00a0Tios Mexican Cafe and Chow Asian Street Food.\u00a0Refraction\u2019s service will debut with five vehicles making runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a goal of saturating Ann Arbor with 35 bots.<\/p>\n

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