The Robot Report Podcast
00:04:22 · Steve Crowe
[00:04:22] S0: Yep. So it's a tremendous interview for... With Scott over at Boston Dynamics. Make sure you stick around for that. But first, we will recap like we always do the news of the week. And we have you covered with all the latest news and information from the global robotics industry with our network of websites, The Robot Report and Automated Warehouse. Make sure you follow those sites on social media. We have weekly newsletters for each of those brands. So if you haven't subscribed to those, there's no better way to catch up and stay up to date with what's going on in the world of robotics by subscribing to those websites. So we hope you can do that for us. But starting here with an acquisition that you wrote about earlier this week, where Serve Robotics acquired Phantom Auto for just under $6,000,000 in one of its subsidiaries, where they're adding some basically improved video streaming capabilities for their fleet of delivery robots.
00:05:15 · Mike Oitzman
[00:05:15] S1: Yeah. The store goes... Serve announced the acquisition. They actually completed the acquisition earlier this spring and kept it quiet for six months while they integrated the company. But they acquired the assets of Phantom Auto. And Phantom Auto included a subsidiary called Voices AV and basically the technology that they were looking at here is a low latency video streaming capability which is very important to Serve's business for their robot wranglers sitting back at the home base watching the operations of the robot in real time while it's driving down the sidewalk. So they had built technology of their own and what Voices had was a much better solution. They were actually a customer of Voices when Phantom Auto declared bankruptcy, and it was at that point that they attempted to complete the acquisition. And so that's basically, you know, the gist of all of this. And so I had a chance to catch up with Ali Kashani, CEO and co founder, as well as a part of this story. And I asked him if Voices is going to continue to operate as an independent entity or if they're going to continue to sell that software. And so let's hear directly from him what he had to say about the acquisition.
00:06:37 · Ali Kashani, Mike Oitzman
[00:06:37] S2: I'm really excited that we can actually offer this now to other companies in our space, in robotics, in AVs. It's a moment where a lot of technologies are being deployed into real life, and you have to solve this problem of connectivity. Now, we've been facing it a bit longer. I would have been happy to use another technology if it was scaled in a different application first, and we got to kind of come in and enjoy the benefits of that. But unfortunately, or fortunately, we are actually the ones scaling before everybody else. So we have to solve this problem. But now we get to offer this to everybody else. And look, we are building a robotic platform that others can also use to build robots for other applications. To us, the Sidewalk delivery is the book to our Amazon. And there's going to be a lot of other places where robots need to move around people, which is the problem we are solving. So this is a good way for us to start partnerships, because everybody starts with Teleop, then they see everything else we have to offer. And it's kind of a torridion horse. We can kind of get that in there and then start integrating and building on it. [00:07:45] S1: And then I asked Ali where Serve is on their roadmap, because one of the things I was impressed with my conversation earlier in the year with Ali is that they are on a roadmap to deliver 2,000 robots by the end of the year. And so this was his response.
00:07:45 · Mike Oitzman, Ali Kashani, Steve Crowe
[00:07:45] S1: And then I asked Ali where Serve is on their roadmap, because one of the things I was impressed with my conversation earlier in the year with Ali is that they are on a roadmap to deliver 2,000 robots by the end of the year. And so this was his response. [00:08:00] S2: We you know, we shared this during our earnings recently. We are on track. We are doing quite well. I think the last number we shared was 400 robots in the first half of the year. And by the end of the year, we are still projecting 2,000 robots, which was what we had shared in the past. So it's scaling very, very rapidly right now. [00:08:22] S0: Yeah. Interesting stuff. Serve also, they've made another acquisition. Was it last month? I think they acquired an another company, Vayu Robotics, that's working on foundation model. So they're they're making some serious moves here, Mike. [00:08:33] S1: Yeah. Well, don't forget, Serves a public company. So, you know, you can participate in their their future if you want to. So, yeah, it's... I think they're they're making waves here, and certainly, they're they're still planning to deliver 2,000 robots by the end of the year. So I think that's a significant goal for any robot. We talk about large fleets. Right?
00:08:33 · Mike Oitzman, Steve Crowe
[00:08:33] S1: Yeah. Well, don't forget, Serves a public company. So, you know, you can participate in their their future if you want to. So, yeah, it's... I think they're they're making waves here, and certainly, they're they're still planning to deliver 2,000 robots by the end of the year. So I think that's a significant goal for any robot. We talk about large fleets. Right? [00:08:55] S0: Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Cool stuff there. And thanks to Ali for for joining the show. Moving forward here, this is a very interesting story in my mind, and we're going to let you take this one as you have some experience riding in a Zoox Robotaxi. You took a trip, I think it was around CES earlier this year. So January of this year, you got to ride around the Las Vegas Strip in one of Zoox's very unique robotaxis. But now the general public, Mike, is going to get a chance to ride around the strip in a Zoox Robotaxi. It's finally Zoox has, announced that it's launched its Robotaxi service to the public on and around the Las Vegas Strip. This is what, ten years in the making, something like that. The rides are free for the moment. I can't imagine it's going to stay that way. Keep in mind, this is Zoox is owned by Amazon. But again, this has been in the works for quite some time. They're going have all sorts of stops along the way if you want to go to, you know, some of the casinos and resorts and, other things that people do in Las Vegas. But your thoughts on this as again, you you wrote in one not that long ago.
00:10:01 · Mike Oitzman, Steve Crowe, Eugene Demetri
[00:10:01] S1: Yeah. And actually, we... You embedded the the video in the actual story that we published this week. And I think the key thing about the Zoox Robotaxi is that there's no steering wheel. It's not a normal vehicle. It's a completely custom configuration. You've got two benches. It'll sit four people. So I think it'll be a great I had a great experience. And, you know, I was by myself, but I couldn't imagine it'd be really fun to jump into this shuttle, so to speak, with with a bunch of friends. Right? Or a couple... Two couples for riding around the the Las Vegas area because it's totally comfortable. You get to face each other. You can continue conversation. It's just gonna make transportation, you know, that much quicker. And I think it totally fits the whole vibe of Las Vegas. Right? If you're you're you're just enthralled with everything else that's going on, They step into the ride, get off at your next stop, and I think it's gonna, you know, revolutionize sort of this this autonomous transportation. You know, it's probably equivalent to jumping on the monorail kind of thing, except it's a private, you know, vehicle for you taking exactly where you wanna go point to point. [00:11:13] S0: Is it is it... How private is it? Because I remember this is very similar. The design of it anyway reminds me of the Origin Robotaxi from Cruise, which, [00:11:21] S3: you