Food Deliveries By Robot: New Service Expands To Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Alexandrians may soon notice robots on the streets delivering food orders.

Serve Robotics, a company specializing in autonomous robots for sidewalk delivery, announced Wednesday it is expanding to Alexandria. The on-demand robotic delivery service will be done in partnership with Uber Eats. Residents and businesses will have access to the service in North East Alexandria, Del Ray, Potomac West, Old Town North and other nearby neighborhoods. Serve Robotics plans to expand to other neighborhoods in the area in the coming months.

"Delivering our autonomous service in Alexandria is a landmark step toward enabling scalable, sustainable last-mile logistics in historically rich, pedestrian-oriented cities. This represents steady execution against our 2025 roadmap, as we had promised," said Ali Kashani, the CEO and co-founder of Serve Robotics. "Alexandria’s vibrant heritage, strong sense of community, and ongoing focus on smart mobility make it an ideal launch ground for our next generation of sidewalk robots."

The company says it worked with the city government and other stakeholders to safely deploy the autonomous robots. It hopes the service can ease traffic congestion by taking some food deliveries off the roads.

Delivery robots have become a growing trend to meet demands of third-party delivery services like Uber Eats and DoorDash. According to Serve Robotics, customers in the participating delivery area may be assigned an autonomous robot for their order but cannot directly request one. The robots are typically assigned short-distance orders with clear sidewalk delivery zones.

The robots move at walking speed and use artificial intelligence, sensors and cameras to navigate around people, pets and infrastructure. Remote operators can also control functions on the robots if needed. During deliveries, the robots have a locked container that only the business or customer can open using a code or app unlock function.