Robotics startup RIVR has partnered with parcel delivery platform Veho to launch a pilot program that utilizes four-legged robots to drop off packages. The initial deployment has already begun in Austin, and seeks to address the “last-100 yard challenge” of modern package delivery. The delivery robot, which Rivr Founder and CEO Marko Bjelonic describes as “a dog on roller skates,” takes care of the final step of delivery–transporting the package from delivery van to doorstep.
Rivr says that its robot is designed specifically for sprawling urban environments, with wheeled legs that can climb stairs and navigate around obstacles thanks to an integrated AI system. The robot was created to work alongside Veho’s drivers in order to make “dense, multi-drop delivery commercially viable.”
“What we have seen in the robotic space is that there’s a data barrier, because ChatGPT and other chatbots have the internet as training data, and autonomous cars have thousands of cars on the street that they can attach sensors to and start collecting data,” Bjelonic told TechCrunch. “But in the robotics world, that kind of dataset is missing, so you need to find the meaningful use case where you can solve a real problem, and then you can start collecting all of the data to make these robots more intelligent.”
