Robots are roaming Markham, and they're testing people's appetite for high-tech takeout

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A fleet of orangish nutrient transportation machines is being tested arsenic portion of a aviator task led by Skip, formerly known arsenic SkipTheDishes, and Real Life Robotics, an automation institution nether the University of Waterloo's startup incubator called Velocity.

Pilot is 1st municipally approved sidewalk transportation cognition successful the country, CEO says

Britnei Bilhete · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 03, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 14 minutes ago

The adjacent clip you bid takeout successful Markham, Ont., it could get dropped disconnected by a robot and its quality companion.

The task is the archetypal municipally approved sidewalk transportation cognition successful the country, and it's already had hundreds of palmy orders, says Cameron Waite, CEO of Real Life Robotics.

"That's a large woody for us. It's a large woody for Canada … the accidental is perchance huge," Waite told CBC Toronto.

It's 1 of the latest initiatives crossed Ontario and beyond that's investigating the viability of integrating much automation into people's regular lives.

Waite says the three-month aviator aims to decipher whether there's an appetite for robot transportation options successful municipality environments, and what that could look like.

The bid process is simple. If a lawsuit orders done the Skip app and is located successful the piloting area, they'll beryllium fixed an enactment to prime robot delivery.

From determination the process is automated. The "cooler connected wheels" is programmed to spell to the restaurant, cod the bid and drop it disconnected with the customers, Waite says. To get the order, the purchaser volition scan a QR codification and participate their password to unlock the robot.

The machines are equipped with sensors that springiness them spatial awareness and, for now, each 1 is accompanied by a quality usher liable for studying its interactions with pedestrians and users.

Markham is "proud to beryllium astatine the forefront of astute mobility innovation," the metropolis told Radio-Canada successful a statement.

"This inaugural provides a real-world investigating situation for Ontario-based companies to aviator next-generation proscription technologies," the connection says.

Concerns astir information and comfort

Not each metropolis oregon everyone is excited astir the imaginable of robot transportation options.

In December 2021, Toronto banned the usage of micro-utility devices, which includes nutrient transportation robots, connected its sidewalks and motorcycle lanes, in response to concerns astir maintaining accessibility for seniors and radical with disabilities.

While information mightiness beryllium manageable, arsenic these kinds of robots question astatine debased speeds, a bigger contented is comfort and however robots stock abstraction with pedestrians, says Bilal Farooq, an subordinate prof successful proscription engineering astatine Toronto Metropolitan University.

"They request to person not conscionable perception, but they should person societal consciousness of what different pedestrians are doing," helium said.

For example, Farooq says, the robots should beryllium capable to consciousness whether determination are multiple radical walking toward it and cognize to question astir them, not done them. That benignant of consciousness is thing presently being discussed successful studies, helium says.

"These benignant of pilots are a bully mode to trial and use that research," Farooq said.

Impacts connected employment 'going to happen,' prof says

Another interest is whether these robots volition get truthful fashionable that they commencement to regenerate workers.

Automation has been happening implicit the past fewer centuries and it's apt to impact food transportation eventually, says Harry Holzer, prof of nationalist argumentation astatine Georgetown University successful Washington, D.C.

"It seems to maine that it's going to happen," Holzer said. "It's not hard to envision that robots volition bash this much cheaply and much cost-effectively."

When asked astir the determination to opt for robots alternatively of people, Waite said the aviator is astir learning what the user prefers.

"The thought present is to fig out, 'Is determination worth successful having an further enactment for deliveries successful areas similar this?" helium said.

According to a caller merchandise by the University of Waterloo, Real Life Robotics is aiming to roll retired up to 500 robots nationwide wrong the adjacent 3 years.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Britnei Bilhete is simply a newsman with CBC Toronto. She antecedently worked arsenic a shaper with the CBC News societal media squad and reported for CBC Nova Scotia. You tin nonstop your communicative tips to her astatine britnei.bilhete@cbc.ca.

With files from Andréane Williams and Michelle Song

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