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Robot model

Cartken Courier

sidewalkcommercialby Cartken

Cartken (Oakland, California; founded 2019 by ex-Google engineers from the Bookbot project, led by CEO Christian Bersch; about $22.5 million raised from…

Track Cartken Courier
Manufacturer
Cartken
Form factor
sidewalk
Maturity
commercial
Lifecycle
active
Deployments
6
Website
cartken.com ↗

The verified answer

As of Sep 2026, DEPLOY verifies Cartken Courier, a sidewalk by Cartken (commercial): 6 verified deployments on record. 5 sources back the record.

Appears inLogistics robots

Overview

Cartken (Oakland, California; founded 2019 by ex-Google engineers from the Bookbot project, led by CEO Christian Bersch; about $22.5 million raised from investors including Magna International, Shell Ventures, and Mitsubishi Electric) makes six-wheeled autonomous sidewalk delivery robots. Its Cartken Courier is the original sidewalk bot carrying about 44 pounds at 3 to 6 miles per hour, joined by the larger industrial Cartken Hauler with a 660-pound payload and an indoor Cartken Runner.

It ran campus and food sidewalk delivery at scale, including a 41-robot fleet at the University of Arizona via Grubhub and Uber Eats service in Miami and Tokyo, but in July 2025 it pivoted its growth focus from last-mile food delivery to industrial robotics, with food delivery continuing but no longer expanding. The registry records it at commercial maturity with a finding that corrects the sector's captive-service premise: Cartken is not a classic captive operator, its legacy campus business was robots-as-a-service, and its forward business is industrial robot sales, anchored by a multi-million-dollar order from Melco, a Mitsubishi Electric Group company, for nearly 100 Cartken Hauler robots placed on June 25, 2025, an outright sale rather than a service, following a first industrial customer in Germany's ZF Lifetec in 2023.

The frequently cited figure of more than 50,000 orders at the University of Arizona is company and BusinessWire PR, with Grubhub corroborating the program but not the count, and the current fleet size, total lifetime deliveries, whether the roughly 100 Haulers have actually been deployed rather than merely ordered, and whether the Miami service is still live in 2026 are not verified.

Verified vs. claimed

Maturity stage
commercial(Commercially deployed with revenue-generating operations.)
Sources on file
View all sources →

Key facts

Payload

~44 lb / ~1.5 cu ft

Operating speed

3-6 mph

Form factor

six-wheeled sidewalk delivery robot

Autonomy level

autonomous

Production target

nearly 100 Cartken Hauler robots ordered by Melco on June 25, 2025

Specs

Notes

Verified: Cartken (Oakland CA; founded 2019 by ex-Google Bookbot engineers) ran campus/food sidewalk delivery (U. Arizona 41-robot fleet via Grubhub; Uber Eats Miami + Tokyo; Rakuten Japan). In July 2025 it PIVOTED its growth focus from last-mile food delivery to INDUSTRIAL robotics; food delivery continues but is no longer expanding. maturity=commercial., Captive-vs-sale (corrects sector premise): NOT a classic captive-service operator. Legacy campus/food business was RaaS; the forward business is industrial robot SALES: Melco (a Mitsubishi Electric Group co.) ordered nearly 100 Cartken Hauler robots (Jun 25 2025, multi-million-dollar, outright sale) for Japanese factories/warehouses. First industrial customer ZF Lifetec (Germany, 2023)., Regulatory / model: Sidewalk PDD-class for the Courier (campus + public sidewalks under state PDD laws). The Model reflects the current sidewalk+industrial direction; legacy food-delivery deployments retain their historical commercial state., Claimed but NOT verified (cap-flag): The '>50,000 orders at U. Arizona 22-23' figure is company/BusinessWire PR (Grubhub corroborates the program, not the count); exact current fleet size + total lifetime deliveries; whether the ~100 Haulers are DEPLOYED (it is an ORDER with deployment 'within this fiscal year'); whether Uber Eats Miami is still live in 2026.

Specs

Cartken Courier (Model C): six-wheeled sidewalk delivery bot, ~44 lb / ~1.5 cu ft payload, 3-6 mph. Cartken Hauler: larger industrial model (2025), 660 lb / 300 kg payload. Cartken Runner: indoor. Founded 2019 (ex-Google 'Bookbot' engineers; CEO Christian Bersch); ~$22.5M raised (468 Capital, Magna International, Shell Ventures, Mitsubishi Electric).

Runtime

16 h

Max speed

7.2 km/h

Form Factor

sidewalk (six-wheeled autonomous sidewalk delivery robot; + larger industrial variant)

Payload kg

80

Data & sources

Press releases

3

News coverage

1

Web sources

1

5 sources backing this record.View all →

Availability and pricing

Availability
Not sold (internal use)
Price
Not publicly disclosed
Units in field
Not disclosed
Sales model
Not disclosed
Lead time
Not disclosed

Autonomy: verified vs claimed

What it actually does
Autonomous

Pricing

No verified price is on record for Cartken Courier. Physical-AI systems are often sold through enterprise contracts or operated as a service rather than at a public list price.

How DEPLOY tracks pricing

Deployments (6)

Free to use on your site, with a link back to DEPLOY.

Cartken Courier on the deployment map

View the global map

Where Cartken Courier is verified operating. Explore the deployment map by place and type.

Free to use on your site, with a link back to DEPLOY.

Recent activity

Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.

Full change history →

Supply chain (1)

Compute / semiconductor

  • NVIDIANVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin (primary autonomy compute; runs 6-camera SLAM pipeline)supplies

Suppliers appear here when verified with at least two strong sources (maker-official / IR / regulatory / standards-body / verified tier-2). Sources are append-only; corrections add new sources rather than rewrite history.

Safety record

No incidents on record for Cartken Courier.

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

Sources (5)

  1. https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/20/why-cartken-pivoted-its-focus-from-last-mile-delivery-to-industrial-robots/
  2. https://www.cartken.com/press-release/a-mitsubishi-electric-group-company-expands-partnership-with-cartken-and-orders-nearly-100-autonomous-cartken-hauler-robots-for-industrial-applications
  3. https://onsite.grubhub.com/blog/how-the-university-of-arizona-uses-grubhub-and-cartken-for-robot-delivery/
  4. https://www.cartken.com/press-release/cartken-announces-22-5m-in-aggregate-funding-to-advance-ai-based-technology-stack-enabling-autonomous-delivery-robots
  5. https://www.cartken.com/

Compare Cartken Courier

Common questions

What is Cartken Courier?
Cartken (Oakland, California; founded 2019 by ex-Google engineers from the Bookbot project, led by CEO Christian Bersch; about $22.5 million raised from investors including Magna International, Shell Ventures, and Mitsubishi Electric) makes six-wheeled autonomous sidewalk delivery robots. Its Cartken Courier is the original sidewalk bot carrying about 44 pounds at 3 to 6 miles per hour, joined by the larger industrial Cartken Hauler with a 660-pound payload and an indoor Cartken Runner. It ran campus and food sidewalk delivery at scale, including a 41-robot fleet at the University of Arizona via Grubhub and Uber Eats service in Miami and Tokyo, but in July 2025 it pivoted its growth focus from last-mile food delivery to industrial robotics, with food delivery continuing but no longer expanding. The registry records it at commercial maturity with a finding that corrects the sector's captive-service premise: Cartken is not a classic captive operator, its legacy campus business was robots-as-a-service, and its forward business is industrial robot sales, anchored by a multi-million-dollar order from Melco, a Mitsubishi Electric Group company, for nearly 100 Cartken Hauler robots placed on June 25, 2025, an outright sale rather than a service, following a first industrial customer in Germany's ZF Lifetec in 2023. The frequently cited figure of more than 50,000 orders at the University of Arizona is company and BusinessWire PR, with Grubhub corroborating the program but not the count, and the current fleet size, total lifetime deliveries, whether the roughly 100 Haulers have actually been deployed rather than merely ordered, and whether the Miami service is still live in 2026 are not verified.
How much does Cartken Courier cost?
Cartken Courier's price is not publicly disclosed. DEPLOY has no verified price on record for Cartken Courier from Cartken. Physical-AI systems like this are often sold through enterprise contracts or operated as a service rather than at a public list price; check the manufacturer for the latest.
Is Cartken Courier actually deployed in the real world?
Yes. Cartken Courier is independently verified in real-world operation on the DEPLOY registry, confirmed at named deployment sites with primary sources: not a concept, render, or demo-only.
Is Cartken Courier autonomous or teleoperated?
Yes. DEPLOY independently verifies Cartken Courier performing Delivers packages autonomously, with no human in the loop.
What are the specs of Cartken Courier?
Cartken Courier's recorded specifications on the DEPLOY registry: Runtime: 16 h; Max speed: 7.2 km/h; Payload: 80. See the Specs section for the full sourced set.
Who makes Cartken Courier?
Cartken Courier is made by Cartken, based in Oakland, California, USA, founded in 2019.
Where is Cartken Courier deployed?
6 verified deployments of Cartken Courier are on the DEPLOY registry, including at Tsukuba, Japan, Tokyo, Japan, Fairfax, Virginia, USA.
Can you buy Cartken Courier?
Cartken Courier is in commercial deployment and is sold to operators; contact the manufacturer to buy, and see the pricing section for any recorded price.
What are alternatives to Cartken Courier?
On the DEPLOY registry, comparable sidewalk robots to Cartken Courier include Starship Bot, Serve Gen 3, Avride delivery robot, Starship Delivery Robot.
How does Cartken Courier compare to Starship Bot?
Cartken Courier and Starship Bot (Starship Technologies · 41 deployments) are both sidewalk robots on the DEPLOY registry. Cartken Courier has 6 verified deployments on record. Compare both records for specs, safety, deployments, and verified-vs-claimed autonomy.
Is Cartken Courier a top sidewalk?
On DEPLOY's intelligence score, which blends verified deployments, safety, adoption, media, and IP signals, Cartken Courier ranks in roughly the top 22% of sidewalk models tracked by the registry.
What is Cartken Courier's maturity stage?
Cartken Courier is at the commercial stage on the DEPLOY maturity ladder (research, prototype, pilot, commercial, production). Commercial stage means production-grade deployments are operating at named customer sites.
Is Cartken Courier safe?
Cartken Courier has no incidents on record in the DEPLOY registry. This does not constitute a safety guarantee; it reflects the incidents DEPLOY has tracked and verified to date.
What does the Cartken delivery robot do?
Cartken builds autonomous mobile robots for outdoor and indoor use. Originally focused on last-mile food delivery via Uber Eats, Cartken pivoted to industrial logistics across factories, labs, and warehouses. The robots can travel anywhere a pedestrian can, including sidewalks, bike lanes, and crosswalks. AI trained on years of food delivery data.
Cartken: Autonomous robots TechCrunch: Cartken pivots to industrial
Methodology: Verified · 5 sources (3 primary) · last reviewed 2026-08-16

Verification posture

Verified

High confidence

Review state

Stable

Last reviewed 2026-08-16

Maturity + lifecycle

Maturity stage: commercial

Lifecycle: active

Architectural position

Cohort: sidewalk

Sources by quality tier

3
primary-company-ir
Company IR disclosure
1
secondary-industry-publication
Industry publication
1
unclassified
Unclassified source

The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.

Methodology surface for Cartken Courier.

Recent coverage

Cartken Courier in third-party press

Why Cartken pivoted its focus from last-mile delivery to industrial robots - TechCrunch

Jul 20, 2025

Cartken Hauler autonomous robot launched for material handling - Engineering.com

Apr 16, 2025

Cartken autonomous robot facilitates indoor, outdoor material handling - CompositesWorld

Apr 15, 2025