Self-Driving Robot Brings The Supermarket And The Future To Your Doorstep

One of the downsides of using a grocery delivery service like Peapod or Instamart is the fact that most people are pretty picky about their produce, and would prefer to select their unbruised bananas and about-to-ripen avocados themselves. The futuristic Robomart is here to alleviate the last hurdle in grocery delivery by driving its driverless self right up to your door, offering shelves full of produce options and other items, so you can choose for yourself.

Supermarket News talked to company founder Ali Ahmed, who previously launched "Dispatch, a U.K.-based on-demand app in 2015. During his time with Dispatch, he found that groceries were the most requested item, but he hardly saw customers purchasing produce or other perishable items through the service. 'People don't trust someone picking these for them,' Ahmed discovered."

Hence the Robomart, which will let the consumer pick out their own produce. While the concept sounds a bit sci-fi, Supermarket News reports that there are already delivery robots in Silicon Valley-adjacent San Francisco Bay area. "Robomart is in the application process of obtaining an Autonomous Vehicle Testing Permit from the DMV in California and expects to be driving in the San Francisco Bay Area soon."

Grocers will be able to lease the Robomart for 24 months and track the robot's deliveries. The driverless car will be able to drive 25 miles an hour and for about 70 miles on a single electrical charge. Until fleets of Robomarts hit the road, we're just going to try to block that "zombie cars" scene from the Fate Of The Furious right out of our collective memories: