Wendy's to Pilot Autonomous Robot Food Delivery System

Wendy’s is launching a pilot autonomous underground food delivery system, collaborating with logistics company Pipedream.

Using the new system, online food orders will be processed and delivered from the restaurant’s kitchen to designated parking spots for pick up, with autonomous robots used to transport the meals underground and to the car-side Instant Portal pick-up. 

“We know that serving orders quickly and accurately leads to increased customer satisfaction," said Deepak Ajmani, Wendy’s U.S. chief operations officer. "Pipedream's Instant Pickup system has the potential to unlock greater mobile order speed of service and accuracy."

The partners say the project responds to ongoing labor shortages and continually high demand for online orders and on-the-go meal pickups. 

"As mobile ordering preferences increase, we're thrilled to be the first quick service restaurant to partner with Pipedream,” said Matt Spessard, Wendy’s senior vice president. “[The project has] the goal of reinventing digital pick-ups to bring more Wendy's to more people as quickly and efficiently as possible." 

The first trial of Pipedream’s underground delivery system is expected to be integrated into an existing Wendy’s restaurant later this year, though exact details of the location were not specified.

The news comes as Wendy’s expands its digitization tools, with the restaurant chain announcing in June it will test an AI-powered chatbot to take customers’ drive-thru orders. The pilot program, dubbed “FreshAI,” will leverage Google Cloud’s AI software and will reportedly launch in Columbus, Ohio.