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Good news for anyone who’s ever wanted to rent a delivery robot. Kiwibot this week announced a new “rent a robot” offering, making it possible for companies to utilize its army of autonomous delivery systems for a finite amount of time.
The robot as a service (RaaS) approach follows the startup’s recent acquisition of advertising firm Nickelytics: Using the robots as mobile billboards is one of three options currently offered by the company.
Along with Kiwibot Advertising, customers can use the systems for warehouse logistics (Kiwbot Cargo) and the more standard last mile delivery (Kiwibot Leap). The last option has long been the company’s central value add. Over the years, it has partnered with a number of universities for food deliveries.
Kiwibot notes that it has already partnered with AWS to pilot mobile advertising. It was a small pilot, with five robots over the course of a week, during Tech Week in New York City. Kiwibot Advertising is the only one of the three currently available through the company’s site.
Kiwibot Cargo is the odd one out here. After all, warehouse and logistics weren’t the company’s core competency. And besides, there are already a number of firms like Locus that have carved out much of the space.
From the sound of it, Kiwi is positioning Cargo as a more temporary solution to deal with labor issues. It’s certainly a subject on a lot of companies’ minds as we head into the holiday season.
“Services like Kiwibot Cargo come at a time when labor shortages have led top industry players to close down warehouse facilities and resort to efficiency rather than expansion,” the company notes. “By handling hazardous chemicals and overnight surveillance, among other tasks, Kiwibot’s Cargo robots provide some relief. These bots answer the calls for affordability and highly accurate results within these settings.”
Brian Heater is the Hardware Editor at TechCrunch. He worked for a number of leading tech publications, including Engadget, PCMag, Laptop, and Tech Times, where he served as the Managing Editor. His writing has appeared in Spin, Wired, Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, The Onion, Boing Boing, Publishers Weekly, The Daily Beast and various other publications. He hosts the weekly Boing Boing interview podcast RiYL, has appeared as a regular NPR contributor and shares his Queens apartment with a rabbit named Juniper.
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