Serve Robotics launches new business to become the AWS for robots

Serve Robotics said Thursday it will launch Physical AI Services, a new business line that will offer customers its connectivity and data tools, alongside third-quarter earnings, according to TechCrunch's report. The maker of self-driving sidewalk delivery robots spun out of Uber's acquisition of Postmates in 2021 and went public in 2024. Bedrock Robotics, a startup developing self-driving systems for construction equipment, is a customer, and Serve Robotics is working with T-Mobile to bring AI computing power closer to robots.

This piece covers the three products in Physical AI Services, the sidewalk and hospital robots Serve Robotics already makes, and the delivery shift away from Uber toward DoorDash and Wonder. It is for companies developing robots for farms, warehouses, construction equipment, and other uncontrolled environments.

Serve Robotics: the announcement

Serve Robotics CEO and co-founder Ali Kashani told TechCrunch, "We are solving the problem of robots in human spaces." The company already makes two robots: the cute googly-eyed sidewalk delivery robot, and one designed for hospitals that it got through its acquisition of Diligent Robotics. In a recent interview Kashani emphasized that those businesses are not going away. He said there is an opportunity to sell technology developed for its own robots to companies developing robots for farms, warehouses, and other uncontrolled environments.

"I kind of think of it as the AWS moment where we are taking the technology we've built for us, and we're opening it up for more people to build on," Kashani said, adding this wouldn't have been possible without developing Serve Robotics' own robot fleet. The idea is a playbook he learned from Amazon, and he has been thinking about it for years. "And what you want to do is to open your technology so others build with you and on your platform," he said.

What actually changed with Serve Robotics

Physical AI Services will offer three products. Serve Link helps connect robots in the field to AI systems running in data centers, so companies can potentially tap more powerful AI models without putting all that computing power onboard. "Any robotic application generally needs to connect the robots to some offline intelligence, whether it's to collect data or do exception handling or whatever," Kashani said. "It's the connectivity piece that has to be really high performance. You need to be able to manage really unreliable networks and still reliably connect, and that's what we solve."

The second product is a data curator tool that helps companies find edge cases in the reams of real-world data a robot collects. Those edge cases can then be fed back into a training model to improve performance. The third product is a real-world, foundation-model data catalog built from Serve Robotics' own sidewalk robots that can teach AI models how to understand complex human environments. Sidewalk delivery is expanding and shifting away from Uber toward other partners, including DoorDash and Wonder.

Who should care about Serve Robotics

Companies developing robots for farms, warehouses, and other uncontrolled environments are the buyers Kashani described. Bedrock Robotics is already a customer and is a startup developing self-driving systems for construction equipment. Serve Link is for a robotic application that must reach offline intelligence to collect data or do exception handling, stay reliably connected across unreliable networks, and tap more powerful AI models without carrying all of that computing power onboard. Kashani said the connectivity has to be really high performance.

Companies training AI models on human environments are the other audience. The foundation-model data catalog, built from Serve Robotics' own sidewalk robots, can teach AI models how to understand complex human environments. The data curator helps a company find edge cases in the reams of real-world data a robot collects and feed those cases back into a training model. T-Mobile is working with Serve Robotics to bring AI computing power closer to robots. Sidewalk delivery is shifting away from Uber toward DoorDash and Wonder.

How to try Serve Robotics

Serve Robotics said Thursday it will launch Physical AI Services with three products. Serve Link connects field robots to AI systems running in data centers. The data curator, which Serve Robotics is also launching, finds edge cases in collected robot data and feeds them back into a training model to improve performance. The third product is the foundation-model data catalog from Serve Robotics' sidewalk robots. Bedrock Robotics is already a customer of the connectivity and data tools, according to Serve Robotics.

CEO and co-founder Ali Kashani said the two robot businesses Serve Robotics already runs are not going away. One is the cute googly-eyed sidewalk delivery robot. The other is designed for hospitals and came through the acquisition of Diligent Robotics. Sidewalk delivery is expanding as the partner mix shifts away from Uber toward DoorDash and Wonder. The T-Mobile effort to bring AI computing power closer to robots was announced the same Thursday, together with third-quarter earnings and Physical AI Services.

What to watch after Serve Robotics

Kashani has been thinking about opening the technology for years. "When the technology is so nascent, you have got to build the end-to-end application because that's the only way you know what to build, but then over time, as the technology gets more advanced, a lot more people are going to be wanting to build similar things," he said. Kashani added that the opening wouldn't have been possible without Serve Robotics' own robot fleet. The products are Serve Link, the data curator, and the foundation-model data catalog.

The launch was announced alongside third-quarter earnings on Thursday. Serve Robotics spun out of Uber's acquisition of Postmates in 2021 and went public in 2024, and sidewalk delivery is expanding while shifting away from Uber toward DoorDash and Wonder. The hospital robot from Diligent Robotics remains one of the two robots the company makes. T-Mobile is the partner bringing AI computing power closer to robots. Bedrock Robotics, a construction-equipment startup, is already a customer of the connectivity and data tools.