Robomart unveils new delivery robot with $3 flat fee to challenge DoorDash, Uber Eats

Summary

Robomart, a startup that builds self-driving deliver robots, is unveiling its latest robot with an ambitious goal of using it to make on-demand delivery profitable. The Los Angeles-based company announced its patented Robomart RM5 on Monday. The level-four autonomous vehicle can carry up to 500 pounds and is made up of 10 individual lockers that hold customer orders. This structure is designed to allow for batch ordering so a robot can work on multiple deliveries at the same time. Robomart plans to use these new robots to operate an on-demand delivery business model similar to those of established food delivery platforms, Ali Ahmed, Robomart co-founder and CEO, told TechCrunch. This model involves retailers partnering with Robomart to open their own storefronts on Robomart’s app — which is similar to apps like UberEats or DoorDash. What is different is the cost structure for the customers. Each time a customer orders from Robomart they pay a flat $3 delivery fee, which the company hopes will be a much more attractive option than the multiple fees typically charged by other delivery apps, Ahmed said. “We see this as building our own autonomous marketplace,” Ahmed said. “That is something that is pretty unique in this space, an autonomous marketplace for on-demand delivery using self-driving robots.” Robomart plans to start onboarding retailers in its first market, Austin, Texas, over the next few months ahead of launching the delivery service later this year. This announcement marks an expansion from Robomart’s roots. The company was founded in 2017 and started piloting an autonomous “store on wheels” in 2020, which brought a mobile autonomous store stocked with goods like pharmacy items and ice cream direct to customers who requested it. Techcrunch event San Francisco | October 27-29, 2025 While the company started with its “store on wheels” model, this move into on-demand delivery was a natural progression, Ahmed said. He added that the company knew it wanted to ta...