During the pandemic, grocery delivery robots are pressed into service
You’d think that the Covid-19 pandemic would have been a perfect opportunity for robotic delivery. Now more than ever, customers demand contactless drop-offs of groceries and other essentials. But around the world, from Sacramento to Hangzhou, those robots that scuttle down sidewalks, or drones that whip through the air, are being pressed into service for health care—delivering food, linens, and PPE from depots to field hospitals. “What should be a windfall for startups may have arrived too early,” Christopher Mims writes in The Wall Street Journal, “ahead of approvals by national and regional governments that determine where and how robots can be deployed.” Eventually, some say, robots will overtake humans when it comes to delivery—but for now, we’re still in beta.
