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A friendly, autonomous robot that delivers your food | Ali Kashani

Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. Meet the friendly robot that could deliver your next burrito. Ali Kashani introduces us to Postmates’ autonomous delivery robot and explains how it could help reduce carbon emissions and free up valuable real estate in cities everywhere. Learn more…

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Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.

Meet the friendly robot that could deliver your next burrito. Ali Kashani introduces us to Postmates’ autonomous delivery robot and explains how it could help reduce carbon emissions and free up valuable real estate in cities everywhere. Learn more about how it was specially designed to navigate complex social interactions on busy sidewalks to bring you your food (and more) with joy.

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You’re welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here:

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49 Comments

49 Comments

  1. La chaussette

    July 29, 2020 at 10:28 am

    I liked your fake house tour.

  2. TheScarvig

    July 29, 2020 at 10:55 am

    ok i kinda get the feel he was trying to show off his home video production skills a little…
    half of the time he was shooting against reflective backgrounds with minimal reflections of his filming equipment and lighting setup showing on camera!

  3. katherandefy

    July 29, 2020 at 11:18 am

    Let’s do this. We have tech to free us up in so many ways that we are not using. I “love” how the imagination is tethered to the idea of manual labor with humans delivering food instead of robots taking over our menial jobs. What would we do with our time if we didn’t have to do manual or desk or computer work? We could still use desks, computers and our own hands and feet. For other purposes such as creativity and innovation …. all the play time we never have to do things like learn languages, invent things, play music, sing, paint, write, have conversations that don’t revolve around “nothing” or engage in small talk and keep each other company or train ourselves to do an athletic feat, lots of things. We’re already familiar with filming selfies, short video clips, and posting to share all these things. And teaching and learning, as well as sharing all sorts of ideas, projects, collaborations…..

  4. Jakub gorski

    July 29, 2020 at 11:24 am

    I’d love to see this become a reality but people who work in delivery services would probably lose their jobs and I don’t think removing a flow of income is a very good idea.

  5. James Lemire

    July 29, 2020 at 11:29 am

    Good luck climbing stairs Mr. Robot

  6. simo tligui

    July 29, 2020 at 11:30 am

    Poor robot, I bet if they cross somebody hungry or angry, you’ll ended boiling same rice Lol

  7. Jack Sharkey

    July 29, 2020 at 11:42 am

    Why does this man have no reflection

  8. 7duke77

    July 29, 2020 at 12:14 pm

    Do this crap all you like in Europe or your leftist inner cities but leave the rest of us freedom loving folk alone already!

  9. Supernova Kasprzak

    July 29, 2020 at 1:03 pm

    When I picture robots, especially ones that deliver, I picture drones. I don’t see them as either dystopian or friendly, but rather neutrally because they’re just functionally designed for that specific task. And given that my delivery guy just drops off food on the porch _now_ because of coronavirus, I don’t see why a robot couldn’t also do that — with no interaction, why not a robot that just does the job the best? Why not drones???

  10. Aadhi Rosenbaum

    July 29, 2020 at 1:53 pm

    He really looks creepy – maybe he’s a robot and we watchers are in a kind of a experiment 🤔

  11. VideoMentary Productions Channel

    July 29, 2020 at 1:57 pm

    What an excellent Idea, I can see that this project has been well thought out, I hope it dose work out nice Idea.

  12. Oly Rhys

    July 29, 2020 at 2:14 pm

    Sarah Connor has hit the dislike button 140 times

  13. LieroFjeld

    July 29, 2020 at 2:42 pm

    Sounds really difficult to realise. But would love a good result. Gotta remove the service jobs aswell!

  14. John Bray

    July 29, 2020 at 2:49 pm

    The robots should never force a car to stop or a pedestrian to change their course. We need to understand they are lowest in the priority order for anything. I plan to tease any I see

  15. Stuart Carrison

    July 29, 2020 at 3:37 pm

    But we already have this?

  16. Ramona

    July 29, 2020 at 3:46 pm

    The European person speaking doesn’t realize that American streets aren’t really walkable and they are unsafe.

  17. Cubus32

    July 29, 2020 at 4:03 pm

    “we decided to put giant kawaii eyes on it and make it look like a minion from all the children’s favorite movie… hmmm so strange that all the kids wants to touch it”

  18. Bobby

    July 29, 2020 at 4:50 pm

    2020(G) “Respect and dignity.” Furthermore: (Vice) <—> (Truth & Facts) >—< (Vice) •—• vice.com •—• (South Park Studios) <—> (Truth & Facts) >—< South Park Studios ••• “Respect and dignity, 2020?” 2020(G) “Respect and dignity.” Furthermore: 👆 (🔥🔥🔥) 👇 👈—👉 ••

  19. ChaosmanOne

    July 29, 2020 at 7:08 pm

    Hahahaha!!! You actually think humans will do this!!?? AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! 98% of people have an IQ lower than 100!! No one will do this! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

  20. Gaurav Singh

    July 29, 2020 at 7:26 pm

    The last thing I wanna see is an innocent tiny robot getting bullied and dismantled by people on the street.

  21. الأسود العنسي

    July 29, 2020 at 7:29 pm

    I knew he was Iranian after he finished the first sentence.

  22. Роман Воронцов

    July 29, 2020 at 8:49 pm

    I’d love to invest in some of such companies which produce these robots.

  23. Ligia Sommers

    July 29, 2020 at 11:13 pm

    sensacional 🙏🏻💖🌷

  24. Superknight Superknight

    July 29, 2020 at 11:53 pm

    Some homeless men will see those robots as saviours carrying bats to get food. Poor robots. 🤣😂 tamperproof theres proffessional locksmiths out there 😅 there called hackers. Next day theyll make the robot be dancing somewhere in a basement while eating the contents with full tummy😁🌬

  25. sanjuansteve

    July 30, 2020 at 1:26 am

    I’d like to build a flying drone and open source software to give the drone a mapped area where it will harvest all of the fruit of all plants in that area automatically. The drone could track each piece of fruit updating the website with info like how many tomatoes, how many mangos, almonds, onions, chili peppers, etc it expects to harvest the next day so that local residents could request the fruit to be delivered straight from the plant to their doorstep. I will make everything open source and donate the drone (with solar panels to charge it) too so the food will be free for all within its area. The amount of fruit that matures on plants, falls to the ground and is wasted all around us is staggering, plus the same drone could also recognize ideal areas to plant different seeds and plant, care for, track and harvest them too. The drone, or another version of it would also be able to prune and harvest coconut trees as well, landing by grasping onto the upper trunk of the tree, then driving up and down and around for the automated trimming and harvesting. Anyone want to join me in the project to help feed the world for free?

  26. sanjuansteve

    July 30, 2020 at 1:33 am

    What do you think will happen to crime rates, peace and equality in general after we launch universal healthcare, a universal basic income, universal education and internet for all, raising the starting point of capitalism from zero, we’ll let you die with no money, to a level of life with dignity, reducing societal daily fears on a massive scale and freeing us to welcome the automation revolution with open arms rather than with fear and great harm? 😃 #EqualityMovement #BLM

    Call me overly positive, but I think we’re leaving the era of ‘greed is good’ and celebrating wealth and entering an #EraOfAltruism and equality. Let’s #AutomateEverything and #SkipToAbundance.

    • Charlie KINGSTON

      July 30, 2020 at 6:22 am

      Thanks for the graduate speech essay needed

  27. ShanobyKin

    July 30, 2020 at 5:53 am

    😄 this is not new… in Estonia we had them for 3 years or so already…

    • Charlie KINGSTON

      July 30, 2020 at 6:21 am

      GG to your country soon

  28. Shatakshi Aithani

    July 30, 2020 at 5:56 am

    Hey!
    I am from YEF a non- profit NGO. We are working towards raising funds for the daily wage workers in our country. As we all know how the migrant and the daily wage workers are struggling to survive in this pandemic we as an NGO are providing them grocies with funds we are raising.
    I request you to make a short IGTV video about their situation and also spread the message and ask everyone to donate some funds by clicking through this below campaign link. It will we so kind of you to do the useful.
    You can add these campaign link in the end of your video and also add in your description so people willing to donate will donate clicking on this link :

    • Charlie KINGSTON

      July 30, 2020 at 6:21 am

      What country is this

  29. Charlie KINGSTON

    July 30, 2020 at 6:23 am

    Ali you sounds so robotic

  30. Emm N.

    July 30, 2020 at 10:17 am

    Bikes and scooters… but other than that, Iran’s problem is with old high-polluting cars. This will get fixed with electric vehicles as they use significant less energy for urban trips than ICEs. Also it’s not a great idea to scrap open space parking lots to build more housing, the daily flux of people would become a different big problem that needs solving, not to mention the added pollution. Then there are also other ideas and issue in the comments sections that are pretty valid.

  31. cookeycat

    July 30, 2020 at 12:21 pm

    Good idea, but it won’t work.
    Kids, criminals, hooligans etc. will break/steal all the robots.

  32. ElDeano09

    July 30, 2020 at 2:48 pm

    Less than 60 seconds into this video i fell asleep…just sayin
    6:00 in, it does not get any more exciting…i think this may be the worst ted video i have ever seen

  33. Sagittarius Alba

    July 30, 2020 at 3:35 pm

    No! Thanks! 🙄

  34. Edward Jay

    July 30, 2020 at 5:55 pm

    Am I missing something? If most of the take-aways are in walking distance…why not walk?? What is happening to us?

  35. Ashraf Kuzbari

    July 30, 2020 at 7:02 pm

    Ted Talk
    July 30, 2020
    Ali Kashani
    An Autonomous, happy, self driving robot that brings you your food.

    – Our generation is addicted to cars.
    – 20 million food delivery orders are being mad per day in the US alone. That means 20 million 2 ton cars drive 2 pound meals daily.
    – What if robots replaced the cars?
    – The energy used for the cars to deliver all of the meals is crazy high.
    – If we open up our minds and give technological Innovation a chance, then our future can be bright.
    – Even with the robots, there are problems that are ran into. These problems are being worked on to be fixed.

  36. Paul Haggerty

    July 30, 2020 at 9:10 pm

    Amazing brother!.

  37. Joshua Chapin

    July 31, 2020 at 6:09 pm

    I dont think people like you. And it sounds like you just want to tout your ego: What are you gonna do with the 1.5 million people who would be without jobs in the U.S. alone? Yeah, screw them. Got no experience with big oil, do ya? They ain’t losing those sales- right or wrong. Are you donating these robots? No? Exactly.
    Well, people like driving. Good luck!

  38. Hawra Adel

    July 31, 2020 at 7:15 pm

    His name is so Iranian, that me as an Iranian had to click and make sure he’s Iranian. He is. I’m proud of you 😁

  39. Lieve Leysen

    August 1, 2020 at 12:26 pm

    😊💖🤩

    #discoverenjoyfeelgood2

  40. Mohd Kazim

    August 1, 2020 at 3:37 pm

    what about employment?

  41. Sag Norm

    August 2, 2020 at 1:20 am

    wouldn’t a drone be better? I guess too much energy cost?

  42. Jacob Nelson

    August 2, 2020 at 2:20 pm

    No thanks.

  43. Sandro

    August 3, 2020 at 4:16 am

    Thats 7.2b a year on food

  44. DaBlondDude

    August 3, 2020 at 8:17 pm

    Stairs, doors, curbs and serious potholes could be challenging

  45. c'sue Conner

    August 4, 2020 at 1:41 am

    Weather, stairs, theft from the robot on the way to your home…these all could be problematic. But what about all the humans who lose the jobs when robots take over the delivery?

  46. 大学生と勉強、読書するチャンネル

    August 4, 2020 at 11:51 pm

    eyes🤣

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