Uber Eats is expanding its autonomous food delivery service in Japan

After launching autonomous food delivery in Miami and Fairfax, Virginia, Uber Eats will soon offer the same robotic service in Japan — his first outside the US. He once again collaborated with the startup Google alum Kartkenwith local compliance assistance from Mitsubishi Electric, to bring a fleet of Model C sidewalk delivery robots to select areas in Tokyo in March. Uber Eats Japan CEO Shintaro Nakagawa says the autonomous delivery service will solve the problem of local labor shortages while complementing existing human delivery methods “by bicycle, motorcycle, light cargo and on foot.”

Cartken’s six-wheeled Model C uses six cameras and advanced AI models for autonomous driving plus obstacle detection, and a remote control mode is available when needed. With Mitsubishi’s guidance, the robot was modified to meet local needs in Japan. First, its speed is limited to 5.4 km/h or about 3.36 mph by local regulations, which is much slower than the 6 mph top speed it’s actually capable of. Cargo capacity has also been reduced from 1.5 cubic feet to about 0.95 cubic feet (27 liters), likely due to additional thermal insulation in the compartment. Uber Eats adds that for privacy reasons, people’s faces are automatically masked in the footage captured by the robots.

While this is Uber Eats’ robotic delivery debut in Japan, Cartken is already present there thanks to Mitsubishi. As of early 2022, the duo is working with Starbucks, local e-commerce giant Rakuten and supermarket chain Seiyu in some parts of Japan. In the US, Cartken also has a partnership with Grubhub to provide an autonomous food delivery service on university campuses, including Ohio State University and the University of Arizona.

While Uber Eats has yet to share which restaurants in Tokyo will use its robotic delivery service, it shouldn’t have a problem looking for a partnership given Cartken’s previous local experience. However, I highly doubt the two would risk testing their robots through a crowd of drunks in Shibuya.