A new last-mile delivery robot will be taking to streets soon. It will also be taking to bike lanes, if its creators have their way.
Refraction AI, creator of a low-cost, lightweight delivery robot named REV-1, built its bot to operate in both the bike lane and on the shoulder of roads. The company, which recently came out of stealth, is the brainchild of two University of Michigan professors, Matthew Johnson-Roberson and Ram Vasudevan, who say they’ve developed a safer, more cost-effective solution for last mile logistics than anything in the current delivery paradigm.