It’s hard to imagine a world without quick and easy food delivery options. DoorDash and Uber Eats are practically verbs for urban dwellers and office workers across the country looking to get their favorite meal without having to waste time in a car or sitting at a restaurant.
But the ubiquitous nature of food delivery has its drawbacks. It is, at the end of the day, a last-mile logistics problem that puts more cars on the road.
From a sustainability and traffic perspective, it can be a nightmare. But is it a ‘pipedream’ to think that one startup could help change how we think about food delivery all together?
The Austin-based startup, aptly named Pipedream, believes it can be the one to do it. The below-ground autonomous robot delivery system and logistics network startup is rethinking what sustainable, efficient, and secure delivery looks like.
In order to make its goal a reality, Pipedream decided to launch first in Georgia. The Texas startup set up shop at Curiosity Lab in Peachtree Corners, the “living laboratory” and smart city hub just north of the City of Atlanta.
A NEW WAY TO LUNCH
Pipedream’s underground delivery system spans just under one-mile in length and connects Curiosity Lab’s Innovation Center with a popular nearby shopping center with several fast food and fast-casual dining options.
That can help those working in Peachtree Corners streamline how they get their next lunch to the office.
The delivery robot system transports food directly to the Innovation Center at a speed of 55 miles per hour, bypassing any need for a delivery cars during peak hours.
Ultimately, the technology could scale to help reduce traffic, noise and emissions from last-mile deliveries of all sorts of parcels.
Brandon Branham, Chief Technology Officer for the City of Peachtree Corners, told Hypepotamus that Pipedream reached out to Curiosity Lab after reading about its public infrastructure in another article.
“We are proud to be the first city in the world to implement and utilize Pipedream’s technology – leveraging its potential to transform logistics as we know it while delivering real commercial benefits and quality of life improvements in our community. The autonomous robot delivery system in Peachtree Corners is a continuation of what we’ve been able to achieve as an integrated smart city, utilizing smart infrastructure and the more innovative new technology to create a more sustainable, efficient and equitable community for all,” Branham added in a statement regarding the Pipedream launch.
Founded in 2021, Pipedream has raised $9.5 million in outside capital from a mix of investment firms across the country, according to Crunchbase.
Garrett McCurrach, CEO of Pipedream, said that the startup used a combination of trenching and horizontal directional drilling in order to install the underground system. He added that the one-mile tunnel in Peachtree Corners can make around 6-10 deliveries in one hour today.
Pipedream’s Atlanta staff is currently made up of one full-time person and one part-time person, while McCurrach said the rest of the team is in town often as Pipedream builds in Peachtree Corners.
“When speaking to new cities, we focus on the fact that we act just as any other delivery service provider. When speaking about Peachtree Corners, this is such an innovative and impressive smart city and Brandon and his team were excited to chat about how underground logistics will impact the Curiosity Lab community, and getting local businesses on board,” he added.
NEW ROADS, NEW OPPORTUNITIES AT CURIOSITY LAB
Curiosity Lab in Peachtree Corners has become a staple of not only the Atlanta technology ecosystem, but also for the nationwide transit innovation space. Tech giants like T-Mobile, UPS, Cisco, and Audi have come to the city over the years to test out smart city innovations and transportation-focused ideas. Projects have ranged from autonomous vehicles, solar roadways, and new IoT (internet of things) technologies. It was the first city to implement an IoT control room to intelligently control traffic cameras, signals, and streetlights.
Curiosity Lab’s autonomous vehicle test track, spanning 25,000 square feet, is open to both early-stage startups and large corporations looking into transportation and smart city innovation. On the early-stage side, Hypepotamus has covered several of the startups that have been growing at the Lab, including Beep (autonomous buses) and SkyMul (drones for construction).
The Lab has also become a central hub for international ventures to grow. Startups from Israel, South Korea, France, Canada, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Germany, and Ireland have come to what locals affectionately call “The Silicon Orchard.”
