Uber Eats Uses Waymo Self-Driving Cars for First Time

Last week, Uber and Waymo announced that Uber Eats users can now be paired with Waymo’s self-driving car for their food delivery as part of their ongoing partnership. This service will operate within Waymo’s extensive 225+ square mile service area in Phoenix.

While it’s the first time Uber Eats has used autonomous vehicles for food deliveries, it’s not the first time it’s used robots. There are smaller delivery robots that Uber has previously employed, like those from Serve Robotics. But they can only travel short distances on sidewalks at walking pace.

Uber also partnered with Nuro’s R3, which is designed for food deliveries, and equipped with temperature-controlled compartments for food.

The Waymo service will start with a few chosen restaurants in Chandler, Tempe, and Mesa, including popular local eateries like Princess Pita, Filiberto’s, and Bosa Donuts.

Before deliveries, the Uber Eats app displays a notification stating, “Autonomous vehicles may deliver your order.” The option to opt out is available at checkout, which will default to a human courier delivery if selected.

Upon the arrival of the autonomous vehicle, an in-app notification is sent out, instructing the user to unlock the car with the help of the phone used to make the order and collect the items.

The obvious downside with robot deliveries is that customers have to go outside to get their food from the Waymo car instead of having it brought to their door. From the delivery side of things, this does mean that real human delivery people may see a drop in available work on Uber Eats. You don’t have to tip a Waymo car (you’ll be refunded if you try to), so saving a few bucks could give robots an advantage.

As Ars Technica pointed out, using large, electric Jaguar i-Pace cars for small food deliveries doesn’t seem very efficient or economical, either. Especially when these cars can carry 5 people and do much more (and there are smaller, more suitable food delivery bots Uber Eats has already used). But at least Waymo vehicles are electric and align with both companies’ missions of making trips emission-free.