DEPLOYDatabase

Company

Refraction AI

Refraction AI is an American autonomous delivery robot company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, developing the REV-1 wheeled robot for last-mile food and grocery…

Track Refraction AIGet notified of verified changes
Founded
2017
HQ
Ann Arbor, MI
Status
private (still operating; ~21 employees)
Models
1

Verified profile

  • 4

    Sources on record

  • 1

    Tracked changes

  • Updated 1 month ago

    Last verified change

How we verify →

Overview

Refraction AI is an American autonomous delivery robot company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, developing the REV-1 wheeled robot for last-mile food and grocery delivery, operating in bike lanes and on roads for cost-effective urban delivery.

Verified record

Verified deployments
None on file
Active incidents
None on file

DEPLOY Intelligence

Market intelligence for physical AI

Analyst-grade signals, competitive tracking, and investment context across the global physical AI landscape. Launching 2026.

Models (1)

View all models →

Current platform

REV-1

Refraction AI (founded 2017 in Ann Arbor, Michigan by University of Michigan professors Matthew Johnson-Roberson and Ram Vasudevan; about $4.2 million seed raised in 2021; now led by CEO Luke Schneider with teams in Ann Arbor and Austin, Texas) makes the REV-1, a distinctive three-wheeled delivery vehicle sized between a sidewalk bot and a car. The REV-1 travels up to 15 miles per hour with about a 280-pound payload and is designed for winter and snow and bicycle-courier-style operation, running primarily in the bike lane or road margin while able to use sidewalks where permitted, a regulatory regime between a sidewalk personal delivery device and a road autonomous vehicle. A critical current-state correction: the dispatch flagged a possible wind-down or acquisition, but Refraction is verified still operating through 2024 to 2026, with the Osage Venture Partners exited label being a venture-portfolio markdown rather than a confirmed acquisition or shutdown, and counter-evidence including a new CEO, an Austin office, Chick-fil-A as a marquee client, and an active 2026 company profile, so it is not tagged discontinued. The registry records it at pilot maturity, since it is a roughly 21-person company with a named client and multi-city presence but no independently verified scale figures. It runs a robots-as-a-service model where customers subscribe to dedicated brand-customizable robots. Any lifetime delivery count, fleet size, revenue, or live-market count is unverified, the claim that the REV-1 is discontinued in favor of a REF-1 is a likely misread of source language describing a second generation of the same design, and the precise nature of the Osage exit is unconfirmed.

sidewalkView model →

Current leadership (2)

Founders (2)

Former / Previously (1)

Safety record

No incidents on record for Refraction AI.

Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Peer companies