Episode 300 | Scaling Sidewalk Autonomy: How Serve Robotics Is Reinventing Last Mile Delivery

Ali Kashani, Co-Founder & Serve Robotics joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how sidewalk delivery robots are transforming the economics and experience of last-mile delivery.

Ali shares the origin story of Serve Robotics, which was incubated within Postmates and later spun out of Uber into a publicly traded company. What began as a simple idea, delivering small items with small autonomous robots has grown into a rapidly scaling business operating in cities across the U.S., including Los Angeles, Miami, and Dallas.

As Serve Robotics continues to expand, the company is evolving into a full-fledged robotics platform with multiple revenue streams spanning advertising, delivery, licensing, and potentially something even bigger in the future.

Episode Chapters

0:00 Founding of Serve Robotics

2:07 Deliveries

4:26 Deploying Sidewalk Robots

9:53 Deployment Markets

15:11 A Robotics Company

19:37 Wing Partnership

21:20 Restaurant Deliveries & Packaging

27:53 Comparing Gen 2 to Gen 3 Robots

29:59 Testing Before Deploying

32:37 New Markets

33:49 Advertising Business

37:33 Growing Delivery Volume

39:37 The Evolution of Sidewalk Robots

42:07 Key Takeaways

Recorded on Wednesday, May 14, 2025

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