Kiwi robots deliver pizzas to hungry students in Berkeley California

Kiwi robots that deliver food are quite common on the University of California Berkeley campus. The co-founder of Kiwi robots and CEO, Felipe Chavez Cortes was anxious to have his robots tested in real world conditions.

Cortes claims that the company has already delivered more than 10,000 orders using its Kiwi bots. Unlike San Francisco that has banned delivery bots from city streets for fear they would takeover sidewalks, the robots can still operate on the Berkeley campus.

The campus also provides what seems to be an endless resource of hungry students. The smaller size of the robots compared to some of the competition means that they are not likely to be seen as monopolizing sidewalks.

Cortes said: “I believe that sidewalks are sacred, and we need to create technology that interacts with people the best way possible. That’s why we’re using several kinds of robots. This size works for 80 percent of the orders.”

The KiwiBot uses binocular computer vision to navigate around the campus. However, it is also aided by humans who take control if the robot needs help crossing the street or navigating through busy areas.

Cortes thought that Berkeley would be a good place to launch Kiwi because the people were diverse and were friendly to new technology such as the robots.

Delivery system is modular

The delivery system is modular with the little four-wheeled robot just used in the last 300 meters of a delivery.Cortes points out: “We started with one robot going from the restaurant to the customer’s house and found out pretty easily that that was inefficient. So we created a multi-modal system. We have three robots: one inside the restaurant, a semi-autonomous tricycle that goes in the streets and we have the last-mile robots. We have robots deployed in the city, and then, with the trikes, we can pick up dozens of meals at once and then we load the robots. The robot makes the last 300 meters. It works. Right now it’s cheaper than using human couriers, and the companies have control of the delivery.”

Kiwi still has a lot of issues to grapple with including making the delivery fully autonomous and ensuring that the robots are not stolen. However they have made a promising start. The company has its own website.

Delivery by robots will be cheaper according to Cortes

Cortes thought of the Kiwi robots after he had ordered a pizza online and found that the delivery cost was almost as much as the pizza. He claimed that the robot delivery could save up to 80 percent. Cortes said: “I think that it is really important that we help things in the city become smarter and cheaper for everyone"

Previously published in Digital Journal

Ron Paul welcomed to liberal UC Berkeley

Berkeley must have changed from the time of Ronald Reagan who called the university:"a haven for communist sympathizers, protesters and sex deviants." It could be as a libertarian student says that the students are now more open to libertarianism. However it is more likely that the students support Paul's strong criticism of Obama's record as carrying on Bush war policy extending the U.S. empire's military reach even further and promoting drone attacks in many countries. Indeed the Obama administration may be plotting to paint Obama as a champion tough guy in the war on terror for the fall election.

Berkeley is probably still one of the more liberal U.S. universities but when many liberals seem content to busy themselves extolling the virtues of Obama and condemning the vices of Romney it is hardly surprising that some on the Berkeley left should make common cause with libertarians in welcoming Paul. Paul has been a consistent voice condemning Obama's violation of Americans' rights.

He may be Republican but he certainly is not welcomed by the Republican establishment. As a libertarian Paul also favors legalizing pot so he probably has support from all those aging pot-smoking hippies. Of course they all smoke it now for medical reasons! I have appended a video with Paul speaking. For more see this article at Russia Today. What! Russia Today. Maybe Paul is a secret commie ;)

California: Higher Education Disaster

 An article by Kevin Carey at this site describes the deteriorating situation in higher education in California. Carey notes that there have been several articles that have focused on problems at the UC-Berkeley. Berkeley is at the top of a three layer system with the community colleges at the base the California State University and finally Berkeley at the top.
   Carey admits that there are problems at Berkeley. The state share of the budget has gone from 47 per cent to 11 per cent since 1991. Within six years tuition has doubled. Classes often are oversubscribed. But even greater problems exist within other tiers of the system according to Carey.
     About 30,000 students the top high school graduates go to the UC campus while about 50,000 enroll in the middle level California State University system. The rest, about 120,000, must go to community colleges. Most high school graduates are thus unable to directly enter a four year university program.
   To complete a four year degree students from the community colleges must be able to  transfer into the four year system usually California State. However Carey shows that the numbers transferring has been dropping over the last few years. Just 3 years ago California State took in 55,000 transfer students a year. Over two years this number dropped by 14,000. The cuts were not due to shrinking enrollments in the community colleges but because of shrinking budgets in the State system. Transfers have been made more difficult by raising GPA standards among other methods. While Obama makes higher education a priority budget cuts have made it impossible for about 12,000 students to even enter the four year system in California.
   Some students have transferred to out of state institutions such as the University of Phoenix. Transfers to that university from the California community colleges have risen 300 per cent over the last ten years. Carey says things in the community college system are worst of all the tiers in the system.
    While enrollment rose up until 2008-2009. after that there were severe budget cuts in the community college system. Enrollment plunged by 400,000 students just at a time when economic conditions made the system crucial for retraining and upgrading people. Carey claims that negative effects on California and the U.S. as a whole will be long lasting. For much more see the entire article.