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Pepsi Is Testing a Snack Delivery Robot On Select College Campuses (hothardware.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the dreams-do-come-true dept.

MojoKid writes: College students used to have to fend for themselves at the campus convenient store but soon may have the snacks coming to them courtesy of a new delivery service. The PepsiCo Hello Goodness Snackbot, an autonomous delivery robot, will now run snacks around select college campuses to satiate whatever case of the munchies it can. Students, staff, and faculty at the University of Pacific in Stockton, California can now order snacks between 9AM and 5PM through the Snackbot app, which is currently only available on iOS. The robot will deliver goods at 50 designated Snackbot areas across campuses. The delivery bot can go more than 20 miles on a single charge and includes a camera, headlights, and all-wheel drive to help it navigate through tough terrain if need be. The Snackbots are part of the company's goal of expanding the reach of their healthier product lines to 50,000 points of presence by the end of 2019.

6 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. What am I missing here? by DethLok · · Score: 4, Informative

    If they want a snack, don't students just reach for their selection of snacks that they've previously purchased and stored?
    Because I suspect that the snacks delivered by a robot are not likely to be as cheap as snacks purchased on a shopping trip at the cheap place down the road a bit...
    And when I was a student, money was important as I didn't have any!
    so... what am I missing here?
    Are modern students so flush with cash and so poor with planning that they find it easier to order snacks when they're feeling peckish?

    1. Re:What am I missing here? by Dusanyu · · Score: 3, Informative

      I recall when I was a Student my dorm as most academic halls had these things that have been around forever, called coin operated machines. serenely these old time devices have to be more covenant than waiting at a Select spot for a robot to show up. granted robotic a cooler on wheels is cool but coinop just works. Unless your an idiot who tries to shake one.

    2. Re:What am I missing here? by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They'd probably have more interest and make more money if they got the thing to deliver weed instead.

  2. Vending Machine? by tbq · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The robot will deliver goods at 50 designated Snackbot areas across campuses.

    How is this better than the dozens of vending machines already all over campus? If it's not going to actually bring me my junk food, how is it an improvement? The difference is that with the bot I have to pick what I want in the app, go to the designated location, and then wait for the bot to show up with my order.

    1. Re:Vending Machine? by sheramil · · Score: 3, Funny

      Perhaps the snackbots could be programmed to dangle the snacks just out of their reach, and then take them on a run around campus until the sugar content of the snack has been worked off.

  3. So, when will it get hacked? by wierd_w · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This *IS* a robot, and it has a simplified set of parameters for thinking it has been paid...

    And these ARE college kids, who are notoriously both 1) Broke as shit, and 2) Have more time than sense, and-- presumably 3) Desire snack food.

    If they push this thing in a college with a healthy CompSci department, how long do you think it would take for there to be an impromptu hack-a-thon on this thing?