RC controlled delivery carts are now available at Los Angeles grocery stores. Tortoise The application of robot gets add on of used as a shopping cart also. Tortoise, the one-year-old Silicon Valley startup known for its remote repositioning electric scooters, has taken its tech and adapted it to delivery carts. The company recently partnered with online grocery platform Self Point to provide neighborhood stores and specialty brand shops with electric carts that — with help from remote teleoperators — deliver goods to local consumers. Tortoise has the makings of expanding far beyond Los Angeles. More importantly for company, is a validation of the company’s larger vision to make remote repositioning a horizontal business with numerous applications. Cart uses software and hardware come up with cameras, electronics and firmware that allow teleoperators in distant locales to drive the micro mobility devices to a rider or deliver it back to its proper parking spot.

The emergence of COVID-19 and its effects on consumer behavior prompted Tortoise to home in on delivery carts as its second act. “We saw kind of a big opening in grocery,” he said, adding that relying on remote operators and its kit is a low-cost combination that can be used today while automated technology continues to develop. “We’re doing for last-mile delivery what globalized call centers did for customer support.”