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Deliveroo announces Coco robot delivery rollout for five UK locations. Deliveroo plans Coco robot deliveries in five UK locations, starting in London. Find out where the rollout is heading and what it means for customers. Oct 6, 2026 Deliveroo launches first UK robot deliveries in 5 locations. Image: Coco Robotics Deliveroo plans to put four-wheeled delivery robots on British sidewalks, giving customers another way to get dinner home while testing how well autonomous delivery fits into everyday city life. Deliveroo announced an exclusive partnership with Coco Robotics on Oct. 5, with deliveries scheduled to begin in London's Canary Wharf this October. The rollout marks Coco's UK debut and Deliveroo's first use of autonomous delivery vehicles in the country. The four-wheeled, fully electric robots will initially operate around Wood Wharf, serving merchants including Patty&Bun, Signorelli and Beam. Deliveroo plans to expand the service to Milton Keynes, Leeds, Stockton-on-Tees and Nottingham in the coming weeks and months. Deliveroo said deployments will proceed in phases under local regulations, with Coco also discussing further launches with councils. The companies say investment in depots, charging facilities and other operational infrastructure will create jobs in maintenance, logistics and operations. Coco's UK launch follows existing deployments with DoorDash and Wolt in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and Helsinki. DoorDash acquired Deliveroo in 2025, making the UK rollout part of a wider push into automated delivery. Built for short urban trips. Coco's robots travel at walking pace and use cameras, sensors and AI to navigate sidewalks and deliver orders directly to customers. The technology is designed mainly for short-distance trips. That makes it a complement to Deliveroo's existing rider network rather than a replacement for it, at least initially. Deliveroo said the majority of orders will continue to be handled by its human riders, although it has not specified what percentage robots could eventually handle. Miki Kuusi, CEO at Deliveroo and head of DoorDash International, said the company sees "huge potential in autonomous delivery" and expects the partnership to give restaurants and shops more flexibility as demand grows. The accessibility angle. There is an unusual benefit beyond getting food to customers. Coco's robots will share real-time sidewalk hazard information with BlindSquare, including obstacles such as construction barriers and abandoned e-scooters. The data can be used to improve navigation alerts for blind and partially sighted pedestrians. "This isn't theoretical anymore. We're seeing firsthand how Coco's real-time sidewalk data delivers tangible safety improvements for our users in every city where we operate together," BlindSquare founder Ilkka Pirttimaa said. That could give the robots a useful public role beyond delivery, although their growing presence on sidewalks will also make careful coordination with cities and pedestrians increasingly important. What this means for your orders. If you live within the initial Wood Wharf service area, your order may soon arrive by robot, but only from a handful of merchants. Elsewhere, expect to wait. Most orders will still come from riders, and the launch announcement does not explain how customers are matched with a robot. For now, that makes Coco more of an extra delivery option than a replacement for riders. The robots are best suited to short trips in dense areas, so their usefulness will depend on where you live, which restaurants participate and whether a robot is available when you order. For restaurants and retailers, the rollout offers a test of robot delivery for short local trips. Its business value will depend on delivery reliability, coverage and costs - practical measures to watch as the service expands. Read more: DoorDash's automation push also extends to the skies, with FAA approval for its own commercial drone delivery service. Aminu Abdullahi is a B2C and B2B technology and finance writer with more than six years of experience covering enterprise IT, cybersecurity, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, fintech, business software, and emerging technologies. He has written for a wide range of technical and business audiences, from IT professionals and cybersecurity leaders to small business owners, executives, and technology buyers. His work has appeared in publications including: TechRepublic eWEEK Channel Insider Geekflare Enterprise Networking Planet eSecurity Planet CIO Insight Webopedia With a background in computer science, Aminu specializes in translating complex technical subjects into clear, practical, and accessible content. His writing helps readers understand emerging technologies, evaluate business software, strengthen cybersecurity strategies, and make more informed decisions about technology investments. Across his work, Aminu focuses on the real-world impact of technology, connecting technical innovation with business value, operational efficiency, security, and long-term digital transformation.

Morrisons trials robot deliveries from four stores with Just Eat and Starship. Morrisons is trialling autonomous robot deliveries from its Cambourne supermarket. The supermarket is working with Just Eat on the new service, with robots delivering grocery orders to customers that have been made via the aggregator's app. Just Eat has been working with robotics firm Starship Technologies since February, to enable merchants on its platform to offer autonomous deliveries. Just Eat said Morrisons was among the first supermarkets to sign up to the service, which is mostly used by takeaway outlets. Charlotte Exell, group online director at Morrisons, told The Grocer the supermarket was part of its effort to "continue exploring innovative ways to serve our local community". Explore related questions. Shoppers ordering from the Cambourne store in Cambridgeshire, as well as three Morrisons Daily stores, click on a banner labelled 'get it delivered by robot' on the retailer's landing page in the Just Eat app - their product options restricted to those which can fit into Starship's six-wheeled, small fridge sized autonomous vehicles. The customer is notified through the app when their Morrisons order is ready for delivery, and can track the robot's movement through the Just Eat app. Once the Starship robot arrives at its destination, the customer is notified again. The customer can then retrieve their goods by unlocking the lid of the robot by pressing an 'unlock' button on the Just Eat app. The robots lay in wait at a dedicated external area near the stores and upon receiving an order via Just Eat, are dispatched directly to them. The robot then waits outside the store and signals store colleagues via a dedicated device. Colleagues then pick and load the order into the robot's secure compartment. Once a delivery is complete, the robot either routes back to the hub or dispatches directly to the store if another delivery is queued. Throughout the trial, shoppers ordering from the Cambourne store via the Just Eat app can have their orders delivered by robot between 9am and 9pm from Monday to Saturday or 10.30am to 3pm on Sunday. Just Eat is offering robot delivery services with Starship in parts of Cambourne, Sunderland, Milton Keynes and Barnsley. It is not the only aggregator app offering such services to its merchants. This week, Deliveroo announced it was rolling out robot deliveries to multiple cities across the UK in partnership with US robotics firm Coco. Coco's robots - which have a top speed of 21kph and can carry four 18-inch pizzas at a time - will begin rolling out in Canary Wharf in London this month, fulfilling orders from a small group of merchants in the area. Deliveroo's robot delivery fleet will soon expand to Milton Keynes, Leeds, Stockton-on-Tees and Nottingham in the coming months. In November last year, Starship - which claims to operate "the world's largest autonomous delivery network" with a fleet of more than 2,700 robots operating across 270 locations - partnered with Uber to offer customers autonomous food deliveries in the UK, Europe and US. That partnership began in Leeds, before rolling out to Sheffield. The robots will be delivering Uber Eats orders in multiple European regions later this year and in the US by 2027. Uber said it "plans to expand the [UK] operating territory in the future". As they become an increasingly common sight in many UK towns, food delivery robots have come under fire from campaign groups like charity Living Streets, which claims the robots are putting "millions of disabled and vulnerable pedestrians" at risk. A YouGov poll commissioned by the charity found 60% of respondents wanted the bots outlawed from pedestrian pavements. Of those, some 80% believed the robots caused problems for blind people, with a similar proportion (79%) thinking they negatively impacted pedestrians with mobility issues. Last month, Chancellor John Healey vowed to make it easier for tech firms to test "frontier technologies" such as pavement delivery robots with new "sandboxing powers". The powers will make it easier for companies to "safely test" such technologies, which might be currently "prevented by the system of regulation". These new powers would be "ready to deploy across the economy next year", Healey said. Latest. Partner features. No comments yet. You will be able to: * Read more stories * Receive daily newsletters * Comment on stories

Tesco and Aldi go big on quick-commerce. Tesco has finally succumbed. It has agreed to work with delivery aggregators Deliveroo and Uber Eats in a sure-fire sign that home delivery of smaller baskets and quick-commerce is now truly mainstream and that the third-party platforms are powerful drivers of traffic into the major grocers. For some years Tesco has relied on its own in-house delivery service, Whoosh, but it has just announced a major shift in its strategy as it links-up with both Deliveroo and Uber Eats to use their portals and national delivery infrastructures. Is it any wonder it has finally changed course. It simply had to look at rival Sainsbury's and see its own in-house service, Chop Chop, combined with Deliveroo and Uber Eats serve up recent growth of 69% and sales of £700 million compared with Tesco's Whoosh on its own recording a lesser 51% growth and sales of £400 million. The big grocers have followed the restaurant and take-away sector in reluctantly tying up with the aggregators. The resistance has been down to the high commissions charged and the aggregators' ownership of the customer. But some things have changed as seen by the fact that Tesco's Clubcard and Sainsbury's Nectar are now integrated into Deliveroo and Uber Eats thereby linking shoppers to the grocers. What has also swayed things is the inescapable fact that the aggregators bring customers to the grocers. As many as 41% of quick-commerce shoppers begin with the aggregator app they want to use, rising to 50% among 18-24-years-olds and 53% for 25-34-year-olds. This compares to only 28% beginning their quick-commerce journey with a particular retailer, according to the IGD. The ultimate choice of retailer when in the apps is being increasingly determined by the range that's on offer more than the pure speed of the delivery, which was where quick-commerce services were initially focused. The era of the battle for orders being delivered in under 10 minutes is now long gone and today it is more about having a decent range that is large enough to complete a meaningful basket. This is even more noticeable in less dense areas such as market towns and villages. Further fuelling the demand for quick-commerce is the change in shopper behaviour that has seen an explosion in the frequency of deliveries generally, according to Courtney Tims, regional general manager at Uber Eats, when speaking at NRF Europe she stated: "At the start it was occasional orders but the reality is it is not that anymore. There has been a change in culture of deliveries from a Friday night treat to now ordering in a healthy meal on a Monday. Delivery is now ingrained." Such trends are driving impressively strong growth in this area, with IGD forecasting quick-commerce will be the fastest growing grocery channel with a CAGR of 10.7% - hitting £5.5 billion in sales by 2031, which will represent 15% of online grocery sales (that are estimated to reach £8.7 billion by 2031). Further highlighting the desire to tap into this fast-growing aggregator-driven quick-commerce is the announcement by Aldi that it is to shortly undertake a trial in eight stores with Deliveroo and its new Shop & Deliver service that involves the riders picking, packing and delivering directly to households. The new service comes after its success by Deliveroo parent company DoorDash in Australia and the US. Such propositions are seeking to overcome the growing issue in grocery stores where employees are swamped with having to pick goods from the shelves for the growing influx of quick-commerce orders, which is pulling them away from undertaking critical activities in-store. Such issues are being recognised by the major supermarkets who are increasingly using technology to help with fulfilling online orders via in-store picking. Morrisons has been piloting its 'pick-by-light' solution that relies on the recently installed ESLs (Electronic Shelf-edge Labels) from Vusion and helps colleagues navigate around the store. They are assigned one of seven colours and the label flashes this colour on the relevant product that they need to pick next for the online order and quick-commerce deliveries they are handling. With pretty much all the major grocers now firmly aligned with the delivery companies and in-store technology advancing at a rapid pace the quick-commerce channel looks set to have an increasing impact on the grocery industry.