Amazon vs. Postmates

About a month ago, Postmates debuted Serve, a cute last-mile delivery rover that looks like a mix of WALL-E and a Minion. 🤖Serve is expected to roll out to “key markets” this year, starting with Los Angeles.

But of course, when new tech throws out the word “delivery,” Amazon is obviously going to get involved. So it wasn't surprising yesterday when Amazon took the hood off its own on-demand delivery robot called Scout.

Scout is about the size of a hamper or a cooler, and rides on six wheels at walking pace. Only six devices are currently rolled out in Snohomish County, Washington.

Some early reactions from the Product Hunt community:

“Wonder how my package will arrive next day at that speed ” - Aaron

“The implementation of lasers inside the visor will surely eliminate all other food robot delivery competition.” - Andy

“What about thieves?” - Stefano

It's worth noting that both of these devices look a lot like the delivery robots from Starship, a robotics firm founded in 2014 by the co-founders of Skype.

Regardless, the war of the sidewalk bots is undoubtedly heating up — and rightfully so. These little rovers may make up 85 percent of last-mile deliveries by 2025. Unless the drones get there first.

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