Yandex has ceased cooperation with the American food delivery service Grubhub

2022: Temporary stop of drone testing in the United States

Yandex temporarily stops road tests of unmanned vehicles in the city of Ann Arbor in the United States. This became known on March 5, 2022. Yandex will also transport robot couriers from university campuses to other countries where the company is already working or planning to launch delivery.

According to to data Automotive News, the company ceased cooperation with the American service. food delivery Grubhub Yandex released the first robot couriers for Grubhub in the United States in August 2021 - they delivered food on university campuses.

Yandex also explained that the decision on robots was made by Grubhub.

Yandex began testing drones on roads in the United States, including without a person behind the wheel, in 2020. The country became the second test zone for the company, the first - in Israel^[1].

2021: Collaboration with Grubhub in robotic food delivery on campuses

July 6, 2021 Yandex announced that he had entered into a cooperation agreement with the American food delivery service. Grubhub The company will become Grubhub's partner in robotic delivery on campuses - campuses at colleges and universities in. USA Delivery will be "Rovers" developed in Yandex autonomous robot couriers.

"Rovers" will be part of the platform that Grubhub developed specifically for university campuses. It is created taking into account the needs of their inhabitants - for example, ordered food can be paid for by student or teaching card. You can interact with courier robots through the Grubhub application. For example, when the Rover with the order approaches the destination, the person will receive a push message, and the Open Cover button will appear in the application.

Robot couriers "Yandex" will furrow the American expanses

Grubhub is an extremely popular platform in the United States that operates on the campuses of major American universities, Yandex notes. - Dozens of Rovers will deliver orders to students and teachers.

As of mid-2021, Grubhub serves more than 250 campuses throughout the United States. In some of them, robot couriers will appear in 2021. Often campuses have a large area, where there are many pedestrian zones. "Rovers" move along sidewalks and footpaths and will be able to bring orders where you can't get by car.

We create a technological and cost-effective service that takes into account the specifics of campuses. University campuses are characterized by a confusing internal structure and have a complex traffic pattern. All these are serious obstacles to automotive delivery, but not a hindrance to Yandex robots, "says Brian Madigan, Grubhub vice president of campus cooperation.

Rovers have already been run in on Russian projects

Courier robots are based on the same technologies as Yandex unmanned vehicles. They drive on sidewalks, and use adjustable and unregulated pedestrian crossings to cross roads.

According to Yandex, over the past six months, its robots have brought thousands of orders from the Yandex.Food and Yandex.Shop services. And from April 2021, they also deliver orders from restaurants in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

In recent years, companies have begun to actively test robot delivery on relatively small projects, including university campuses. One of Yandex's most famous competitors in this field in the United States is Starship Technologies, based in San Francisco, which was created by the co-founders of Skype. Back in 2020, the company provided food delivery services to more than ten university campuses in different states.