Chicago Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) wants to hear from anyone who has strong feelings about food delivery robots.
Right now, two companies, Serve and Coco Robotics, have dispatched rolling food delivery robots in limited parts of the city. But the companies would like to cover the entire 1st Ward — which includes parts of West Town, Wicker Park, and Logan Square.
La Spata is asking for feedback from residents before approving the expansion.
Critics who have spoken to CBS News Chicago have complained that the robots are slow and take up too much space on the sidewalk.
Last fall, over 800 Chicago residents signed a petition to pause the pilot program over safety and accessibility concerns.
Josh Robertson, who created the petition, said the robots are disruptive.
“This was a vehicle coming toward us. It has cameras, its bright headlights were shining in full force, and we instinctively got out of its way,” Robertson said in November. “That’s what people reflexively do when vehicles are coming in the same lane toward them, but this was pedestrians in the pedestrian space.”
The Personal Delivery Device (PDD) Pilot Program was first introduced to the Chicago City Council by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot in 2022. Under the pilot program, companies like Coco and Serve partner with restaurants as a courier service to deliver food orders to customers using robots.
In November 2024, Coco was licensed by the Chicago Department of Business Affairs & Consumer Protection (BACP), with the terms jointly managed with the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT). Serve launched in September 2025. BACP & CDOT say the pilot program is designed to assess both the “benefits and risks.”
In the initial release, CDOT said they are “assessing whether these delivery robots can be used to safely replace vehicle trips without inconveniencing other sidewalk users.”
According to the BACP, the pilot program will not continue past May 2027 without action by the City Council.
