Equity Serve is betting that food delivery and access to public markets are the keys to scaling robotics
27 snips
May 21, 2025 
Ali Kashani, Co-founder and CEO of Serve Robotics, shares his journey from lidar-focused startup to a publicly traded delivery service. He reveals how Serve's sidewalk bots gather four times more visual data daily than top AI models. The conversation explores scaling delivery fleets in cities like L.A. and Miami, along with the innovative partnership between ground robots and drones aimed at improving last-mile logistics. Kashani also addresses data privacy challenges that come with autonomous technology, balancing public safety and ethical responsibilities.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Serve Robotics' Sidewalk Bots
- Serve's sidewalk robots resemble small shopping carts and operate in big cities delivering food.
- They fetch food from restaurants and deliver it securely to customers, improving reliability and timeliness over human couriers.
Food Delivery as Robotics Testing
- Food delivery is a strategic choice to solve robot navigation in complex human environments.
- The technology developed for sidewalks can extend to various human-robot shared spaces beyond delivery.
Serve's Level 4 Autonomy Approach
- Serve aims for Level 4 autonomy where robots operate mostly independently but use remote humans for help in complex situations.
- Remote operators oversee riskier actions like crossing intersections due to car traffic danger, not robot risk.