A hummus, a salad and a carrot cake. That’s what the Italian company E-Novia’s Yape robot took home on February 24 from Patrik Bergareche, CEO of Just Eat, to show live that food delivery robots are already a reality.

The company has been working with robots since 2016. This year, he made his first real delivery in the town of Greenwich, southeast of Lodres, in collaboration with the startup Starship Techologies. But in Spain this type of technology has not yet been tested so far.

He demonstrated the potential of the Just Eat robot as a ‘rider’ at the Ifema Horeca Professional Expo (HIP) conference. "The user makes the request and the app warns him that it will be a robot that will deliver it. It seems easy, but still, people need to be aware that when they open the door there will be a robot behind them, not a human," explained Patrik Bergarech .

Yap made a short route to Ifeman, just over 50 meters. However, along the way the robot showed that it is able to detect obstacles, stop if someone crosses it and reach the finish line without any problems (including brake and periodic lights). "We started working with robots in a very experimental way, to find out what collisions they have with consumers and restaurants. If you open your door and you come across a robot as a distributor in front of you, that's shocking. ), we have learned a lot. Now the problem is regulation, because so far it is not suitable for reaching the general public. Bergarechek.

A friend of current distributors

But will these technologies be representative of current distributors? "They play a very good role in supplementing the food they distribute at home. They will not replace humans, but will simply help them in those times when there is a lot of work. In our case we do not have the self-employed as employees, so it is very difficult "Another example of use is for ultra-short distances, where you don't deserve to be sent to a distributor," he adds.
They assure the distribution company that they will not be responsible for building this technology, but they will be looking at it, as well as understanding it through the pilots, in the not too distant future to benefit from it. "The use of robots can help solve problems in the real economy, such as the environment or accidents."

However, Just Eat isn’t the only company that works with home delivery robots. Amazon launched Scout in 2019, using robots to test package delivery. For its part, Wing, a company included in the Google Alphabet, obtained permission to make drones available.
Just Eat is a company dedicated to services. It distributes food at home in different formats. He works as a mediator between bars or restaurants and customers. It deducts a commission of 30% of its profits, plus VAT, for each order made for management expenses. It was founded in 2001 in Denmark and is currently headquartered in London.