FedEx to test delivery robot Roxo in Dubai
Device will travel on sidewalks to hand over shipments to customers
Dubai: Dubai has become the first city outside the US to host Roxo, an autonomous delivery device, Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) and FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp, announced on Tuesday.
Ahmed Hashim Bahrozyan, CEO of Public Transport Agency signed an MoU to this effect on behalf of RTA with James R. Muhs, regional president for FedEx Express at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
Bahrozyan said the autonomous personal delivery device will play a new role in the last-mile delivery challenge as it is designed to travel on sidewalks and along roadsides, safely delivering smaller shipments to customers’ homes and businesses.
As an autonomous personal delivery device, Roxo has a pedestrian-safe technology from the iBot plus advanced technology including LiDAR and multiple cameras, allowing the zero-emission, battery-powered bot to be aware of its surroundings. These features are coupled with machine-learning algorithms to detect and avoid obstacles, plot a safe path, and allow the bot to follow road and safety rules. Proprietary technology makes it highly capable, allowing it to navigate unpaved surfaces, curbs, and to even climb some steps for an extraordinary door-to-door delivery experience.
Bahrozyan said, “FedEX wants to trial this technology outside of the US; once again they have selected Dubai, which is a sense of pride for us. What we will be doing with them now is selecting certain communities where the technology can be tested. Now for us, the ideal community for this kind of service is if you have one of the new residential communities with a community shopping mall. So people can order food or products from the shopping mall and [Roxo] can be used to deliver the product to the doorstep of the customer.”
He said, “Delivery cars and bikes on the roads of Dubai make a lot of trips. RTA is always looking for ways to reduce the number of trips and vehicles so that we can have smoother traffic. This is our main incentive behind [Roxo]. We will trial it, we will see how it works and we will then decide if this is something worth taking forward or not.”