Grubhub, an online ordering and delivery marketplace, is expanding its partnership with autonomous vehicle startup Avride by launching a robot delivery pilot on Oct. 23 for customers ordering from restaurant chain Wonder’s new Jersey City location at 350 Grove St.
Chicago-based Grubhub said this marks the first time that Grubhub is offering autonomous delivery outside of college campuses, and the first time Wonder is bringing robot delivery to its customers.
Grubhub and Avride are leveraging their experience to bring this technology to Grubhub and Wonder customers in the Jersey City market.
During the pilot, customers can place orders from Wonder’s Jersey City location through the Grubhub platform as usual. If an eligible delivery address is within a set range of the restaurant, they will have the option to choose delivery via an Avride robot. The pilot is available to customers within a defined radius around Wonder’s Jersey City location at 350 Grove Street. The radius is intentionally kept small to deliver meals in under 30 minutes. Robot delivery is available for Wonder orders on Grubhub between 10:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.
In Wonder’s multi-restaurant model, diners can choose from more than 20 different restaurant concepts — including Alanza, Tejas Barbecue, Streetbird by Marcus Samuelsson.
The pilot will launch with five Avride robots, with plans to scale as demand grows. Following the pilot, Grubhub plans to expand autonomous delivery to additional markets nationwide.
“This pilot represents the next step in our mission to provide diners with fast, reliable, and delightful delivery experiences,” said PJ Poykayil, senior vice president of customer delivery operations at Wonder and Grubhub. “Combining Grubhub’s marketplace, Wonder’s culinary innovation, and Avride’s advanced robotics, we’re delivering the future of convenience.”
The pilot will feature Avride’s most advanced delivery robots to date, guided by AI-powered autonomous driving technology. The vehicles are equipped with a precision-engineered four-wheel chassis capable of quick 180-degree turns.
For Avride, this marks an important step in expanding robotic delivery. “Going beyond traditional restaurant or grocery delivery, it highlights how seamlessly our technology can integrate with innovative platforms like Wonder’s, opening up new business verticals for autonomous delivery,” said Dmitry Polishchuk, CEO of Austin, Tex.-based Avride.
Grubhub and Avride have already built a strong foundation through their campus partnerships over the last year. They have completed more than 100,000 robot deliveries across U.S. campuses, including The Ohio State University — home to the largest single-site robot food delivery program in the country, where a fleet of over 120 robots delivers meals to students every day.
Poykayil said that pending a successful pilot, Grubhub hopes to expand to a full, longer-term partnership with Avride in Jersey City and explore more opportunities to bring this technology to additional non-campus markets.
Earlier this week, Avride secured strategic investments and commercial commitments of $375 million from San Francisco-based ride-sharing company Uber Technologies Inc. and Nebius Group, an Amsterdam-based builder of vertically integrated AI infrastructure.
