AI Has Your Order: Shake Shack, Uber Eats Delivering Food via Coco Robotics
Fast-food chain Shake Shack and Coco Robotics are collaborating on autonomously delivering online orders to customers in Chicago.
Coco, the urban robot delivery platform, will bring Shake Shack deliveries at two Chicago locations via Uber Eats. Shake Shack eventually wants to expand the autonomous vehicle service to additional sites throughout the city.
Coco Robotics will integrate into Shake Shack’s existing Uber Eats ordering system, eliminating manual entry or extra steps for in-store teams. Orders move directly from the kitchen to the curb, where a Coco robot completes the final step, delivering it directly to the customer.
Under the plan, Shake Shack should be able to complete more orders, especially during peak hours, improving delivery timing and ensuring consistent experiences for guests. Coco's robots operate on sidewalks and in high-traffic urban areas, safely navigating to customers’ designated pickup locations much like the Waymo autonomous taxi service in Phoenix.
"By integrating Coco's autonomous delivery technology into Shake Shack's operations with Uber Eats in Chicago, we're supporting their mission to bring great food and hospitality to more guests - efficiently, sustainably, and with the same care that defines every Shack experience,” said Melissa Fahs, Chief Commercial Officer at Coco Robotics, in a statement.
The Coco Robot's latest iteration has 90 liters of storage space, can move from 5 to 15 miles per hour, and is battery powered with up to 33 kilometers of range per full charge.
Founded in 2020, Coco Robotics has rolled out services to complete more than 500,000 zero-emission deliveries so far. It has developed sites in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and Helsinki.
DoorDash has expanded its partnership with Coco Robotics in those first two cities. OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman is an investor in Coco Robotics, which has raised $80 million to scale up its AI-enabled platform.
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EnergyTech Staff
Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 17 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.
Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.
He can be reached at [email protected].
EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.
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