When an innovative idea meets a specific business need, success is only one step away – in this case, the technology. At xBerry, we have all the technical know-how and experience to bring an idea to life as a reliable and smooth-running product. Here is how our team has assisted Coco on their journey to become the ultimate last-mile delivery solution.
Challenge
It all started with a traditional flyer on the fridge: place your order over the phone, and have your dinner delivered by a dedicated dispatch service from the restaurant. But the vast popularity of food delivery services, which has been growing steadily over the past few years, has evolved along with the advancement of technology. With the increasing use of smartphones and earmarked applications, orders can now be placed with just a few clicks on your smartphone. But still, even in this new-fashioned food delivery case, the key was the food courier – the person bringing our order to our door on a bicycle or scooter.
The food delivery market evolved a great deal during the COVID-19 pandemic. We observed significant courier shortages. There was also concern among people ordering food about having contact with someone from outside their household. The food delivery industry began to face a crisis that no one expected – the demand for food delivery was huge, but it was difficult to find people to work as couriers and ensure sufficient security measures to cater for the potential corona-anxiety of potential customers.
Our partner, Coco, spotted an area for improvement here – what if we could design a solution that could redefine the food delivery experience for merchants and their customers – and, in effect, make deliveries more affordable, reliable, and sustainable?
Goals
Coco Team came to us with their newest delivery robot and some ideas for improvements - well thought out from a business and utility point of view.
Our partners knew they could hit the market with remotely controlled, city-designed delivery robots. To grow further, they needed to improve their infrastructure and the product – and as a result, supply cities all around the world with Coco deliveries. At xBerry, our prime goal was to provide Coco leaders with a technical team, whose knowledge and expertise would be able to design and deploy technical solutions tailored to their needs.
Our cooperation with Coco is based on the Team Augmentation service – we deliver a complete team of our experts to work with Coco’s Business Leaders and Project Owners to understand emerging challenges, define technical problems, and design and implement the best solutions.
About Coco
Coco is a leading robotic delivery service that deploys remotely piloted sidewalk vehicles to make last-mile deliveries more affordable, reliable, and sustainable. Robots are under the control of a trained operator – one of our Coconauts, and only enter the public right-of-way while making an active delivery. Coco vehicles are uniquely contoured to travel more efficiently than traditional courier services in dense, urban areas. Now, you can encounter Coco robots on the streets of Santa Monica in Los Angeles, achieving a 97% on-time delivery rate and reducing 0.25kg/1km of CO2 emissions.
Results
With xBerry’s support and collaboration, Coco has achieved significant improvements in the reliability and performance of their onboard software stack.
This directly leads to improved operating efficiency for Coco, and a better experience for Coco’s merchant partners and end customers. Having established a solid onboard software foundation, Coco and xBerry are now focused on developing autonomous driving capabilities to enable pilot-less delivery trips in the future.
Tech Stack
What are the customers saying?
Their technical expertise and flexibility make xBerry an invaluable partner for us. It is crucial in the ever-changing and fast-paced environment to work with people that understand you and your needs.