Meet Geoffrey: The pink robot with heart-shaped eyes that now delivers coffee in Charlotte
Plaza Midwood residents and workers can now get their morning or mid-afternoon jolt of coffee delivered to them by luggage-sized, eco-friendly pink robots.
Toronto-based Tiny Mile has rolled out its robots with heart-shaped eyes as part of a two-month trial in partnership with the city of Charlotte. This is the first time the delivery bots will be used in the United States.
The drinks and food items will come from Undercurrent Coffee’s shop on Commonwealth Avenue.
The company brought the semi-autonomous robots, which are all named “Geoffrey,” to Charlotte because the city is “one of the top 10 most technologically innovative cities in America,” Tiny Mile business development manager Omar Elawi said at a news conference Friday.
Charlotte’s entrepreneurial and forward-thinking small business owners inspire Tiny Mile daily to make ”environmentally and economically sustainable local delivery a reality,” Elawi said.
Using the robots should help to reduce carbon emissions and traffic in Plaza Midwood, according to a city news release.
The robots are named in honor Geoffrey Hinton, one of the godfathers of AI, or artificial intelligence, according to Elawi. Hinton gave Elawi and Tiny Mile founder Ignacio Tartavull his blessing to name the bots after him.
Coffee in Plaza Midwood
Undercurrent Coffee has been working with Tiny Mile for several weeks, including a demo run last month when the robots were first spotted on Central Avenue.
“It’s really been a pleasure for our staff, our guests and our community to watch the development of these robots,” owner Todd Huber said.
Undercurrent does not use other food delivery services like DoorDash and Uber Eats for economical, logistic and environmental reasons, Huber said.
“This works better for us then the traditional third-party delivery services,” he said.
Five robots are currently delivering within a 1-mile radius of the Commonwealth Avenue location, and each is being remotely controlled by a human navigator, according to the city.
Although the number of deliveries made using Geoffrey is unclear, Undercurrent’s customers have loved using the robots, Huber said.
“We’ve been proud to host the team on site and witness the evolution of their service,” he said.
How Geoffreys work
Tiny Mile partnered with Odeko, a mobile ordering application for coffee shops. Customers can download Odeko and order from Undercurrent Coffee.
The ordering should work “seamlessly,” Huber said.
Geoffreys have built-in GPS, cameras and sirens, according to Elawi. The robots are always tracked, and remote operators can see everything through its lid, he said.
The cost of the robots is unclear, but they are “extremely cheap” for how high-tech they are and the services they perform, Elawi said.
Thefts shouldn’t be an issue because power tools would be needed to open the robot’s metal lid, according to Elawi.
For now, only Undercurrent Coffee is participating in the two-month trial, city spokesman Cory Burkharth told the Observer.
Tiny Mile uses a pay-as-you-go pricing structure that charges $1 per kilometer (about 0.62 miles), according to the company website.
And no, customers don’t have to tip the robots.
Geoffreys create jobs, save money?
Other third-party delivery services use couriers who walk inside businesses for pickups. With Geoffrey, restaurant employees go outside and put items in the robot.
“There’s an additional logistical cost that we described using the robots by having to walk outside, but there’s a significant economic savings from using the robot,” Huber said.
Bringing Geoffreys to Charlotte shouldn’t take away jobs from food delivery drivers, Elawi said, because Tiny Mile will need pilot supervisors, technicians, engineers, dispatchers and rescuers to help operate and maintain the robots.
“There’s a whole amount of people that you would need to hire to get this thing kind of running,” he said. “Ultimately, you’re actually creating more jobs instead of taking them away, while also kind of helping the environment and small businesses like Undercurrent.”
Geoffreys will make food deliveries in 15 minutes, and its services are 10 times cheaper for restaurants owners because there isn’t driver commission fees to pay, the company website says.
As more robots become available for delivery, businesses will be paying “pennies” to do deliveries, according to Elawi.
“Things will start to become extremely affordable and cheaper for businesses,” he said.
This story was originally published April 1, 2022 at 3:41 PM.
