Rolled food delivery bots powered by Coco Robotics will now deliver essentials and food to customers in Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami, the company announced Thursday.
Bots have already become commonplace in Los Angeles, where they have been delivering hot meals from restaurants since April thanks to a partnership with DoorDash. Pink-and-orange cars the size of large refrigerators line the sidewalks from Santa Monica to Silver Lake.
companies latest expansion cooperates with the DoorDash online store, DashMart, which deals only with delivery. Coco robots will fulfill select DashMart orders, including fresh produce, cleaning supplies and electronics.
The partnership with DashMart could significantly expand the role of delivery bots in everyday shopping. Instead of being limited to restaurant delivery, bots can now deliver items from Target, Lowe's and Petco.
“We built this to be the best autonomous delivery vehicle,” Coco co-founder and CEO Zach Rush said in an interview.
Coco Robotics operates hundreds of robots in Los Angeles and plans to roll out 10,000 more nationwide in 2026. The Santa Monica-based company has made more than 500,000 zero-emission deliveries and its bots have collectively logged nearly 1 million miles.
The delivery service began as a dorm room project in 2020 while Rush was a student at UCLA. Bots have attracted attention because they the number has increased over the years, causing both affection and irritation.
Some Los Angeles residents find bots cute and sweet. Others did their best to destroy the bots or interfere with their journey.
Rush said demand for delivery services is so strong that the company's bots aren't taking jobs away from human drivers.
According to him, bots help make delivery less expensive.
“Grocery delivery is an amazing convenience for many reasons,” Rush said. “If we can use our technology to make this much more accessible to people, I think volumes will absolutely grow.”
The company was unable to share specific expansion plans in Los Angeles, but said it expects delivery bots to grow in several markets.
Coco Robotics delivery is now available throughout most of the city, including Hollywood, Echo Park, Koreatown and Downtown.
“We operate in a lot of the inner city, so I think there's a lot of opportunity for us to have a broader reach across Los Angeles County,” Rush said.
The company makes money through platforms like Uber Eats by fulfilling orders, direct payments from merchants for delivery, and by renting out portions of its fleet to restaurants and advertising services.
Although initially remote controlled human, many Coco Robotics bots now operate autonomously with the help of artificial intelligence.
The company faces competition in the race to improve autonomous delivery, including from San Francisco Bay Area-based Serve Robotics. Rush said the young company has plenty of room to grow.
“We will open many new markets to meet growing demand,” he said. “We'll need more robots.”
