Food delivery robots will soon take to the streets of a community in Dubai as part of a new pilot programme.
Roads and Transport Authority, Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority and online food ordering company Talabat have joined forces to launch the food delivery robots, called talabots, in Dubai Silicon Oasis, news agency Wam reported on Wednesday.
Three delivery robots will serve the residents of Cedre Villas, a gated community in Dubai Silicon Oasis.
Robots will travel within a three-kilometre radius of the Cedre Shopping Centre starting point to ensure a speedy 15-minute delivery time.
The robots come without any facial recognition detection and safeguard people's identities by blurring their faces.
They are fitted with built-in sensors and algorithms that can intelligently gauge surroundings and detect barriers in their pathway, keeping a safe distance from small children and pets.
Robots will transport orders from the nearest restaurant to homes in the Cedre Villas community and will meet customers at their doorsteps.
Customers will be able to track the robots' journey and will receive notifications through the Talabat app when they arrive at their property. Once the robot arrives, customers can unlock the secure compartment by following the steps provided on the app.
The initiative aims to enhance sustainable last-mile delivery options in the UAE and aligns with Dubai's goal of switching 25 per cent of all transport to smart and driverless modes by 2030.
Talabat first introduced the robots at Expo 2020 Dubai, as it seeks to meet these sustainable last-mile delivery goals.
The robots transported food from Talabat's cloud kitchen to customers at the Expo site.
Talabat is present in nine countries in the region and works with more than 25,000 brands and almost 50,000 of these brands' branches.
The food delivery company recently laid out an ambitious strategy to expand UAE operations by increasing the number of riders to 30,000 by the end of the year, up from 15,000 currently, and to cut down delivery times to 15 minutes.
How food delivery robots work
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
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- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
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Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
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Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
Tickets
Tickets start at Dh100 for adults, while children can enter free on the opening day. For more information, visit www.mubadalawtc.com.
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Something of a fashion anomaly, normcore is essentially a celebration of the unremarkable. The term was first popularised by an article in New York magazine in 2014 and has been dubbed “ugly”, “bland’ and "anti-style" by fashion writers. It’s hallmarks are comfort, a lack of pretentiousness and neutrality – it is a trend for those who would rather not stand out from the crowd. For the most part, the style is unisex, favouring loose silhouettes, thrift-shop threads, baseball caps and boyish trainers. It is important to note that normcore is not synonymous with cheapness or low quality; there are high-fashion brands, including Parisian label Vetements, that specialise in this style. Embraced by fashion-forward street-style stars around the globe, it’s uptake in the UAE has been relatively slow.
