“Food delivery,” begins Postmates VP of Special Projects Ali Kashani. “It’s the thing that saves Millenials from starvation.”
In his TedTalk, Kashani goes on to explain some of the reasons the future ought to include service robots. For one, it offers a greener option for many services like food delivery.
But for Kashani, getting a robot from point A to point B won’t cut it. Rather, he wants to use the latest in AI innovations to create robots that can easily navigate and communicate with the society they move through.
The project, Postmates “Serve”, has already begun trial runs in select areas.
Ali Kashani envisions greener delivery with robots
“By my calculations, Americans order over 20 million restaurant deliveries every single day,” Kashani claims. “Over half of these deliveries are actually within walking distance. But nine out of 10 are delivered in cars. So basically, we are moving a two-pound burrito in a two-ton car 20 million times a day.”
The energy cost of this day-to-day business is staggering. By reducing these food delivery commutes, Kashani estimates this could “reduce the need for as many as 1.5 million cars just in the US…now, think of the impact this could have on cities like Delhi, or my birth city of Tehran, where car pollution is killing thousands of people every year.”
Kashani works for one of the four main food delivery companies – Postmates. Uber recently acquired Postmates, combining two of those four into one powerhouse.
The project: Serve. “Serve” is the name of the robot currently in trials, hoping to replace at least some of those 20 million car trips per day.
Bringing engineering, business, and people to the table
Kashani is a problem-solver by nature. Before lending his expertise to solve the challenges of robotic delivery with Postmates, he founded Neurio, a technology company that seeks solutions to home energy use. Generac acquired Neurio in 2019.
While he now works for one of the largest delivery companies in the world, Kashani began his work in the field as an entrepreneur. Postmates acquired his company, Lox, inc, in 2017.
An engineer by training, Kashani brings a bit of everything to his role with Postmates: a background in robotics, but also an understanding of business and people. After all, one of Serve’s greatest challenges lies in navigating humans and communicating.
Ali Kashani sets Serve apart from other robots
Postmates is not the first to design and introduce a delivery robot. Amazon’s “Scout” has already entered trials as well, alongside their related drone-delivery programs under consideration.
But Kashani knows how to set Serve apart from the competition. “Instead of making aliens, we set out to create robots that are familiar,” he explains. “Robots that would belong in our communities.”
“My vision for the future is that when things come to life, they do so with joy,” says Kashani. “You know, less like the movie “Terminator” and more like “Toy Story.””
On one hand, this vision includes making the robots look friendly. With bright colors and large, friendly “eyes” (which do double duty in offering cues about Serve’s movement), Serve certainly seems like something from “Toy Story” rather than “Terminator.” On the other hand, appearance only accounts for so much.
“What if we used movement to create a universal language?” Kashani asked. “Like, at intersections, robots would gently move forward before they start crossing, to signal to drivers that it’s their turn. If they see someone in a wheelchair, they yield by pointing themselves away from the sidewalk, to signal that they’re not going to move.”
By incorporating universal signals – including motion and sound – Kashani works to make Serve a functional commuter. “Serve safely walks alongside pedestrians, navigates around hydrants, and respects our sidewalks,” the Postmates Serve website advertises.
Keep track of where Serve is available here
