Serve Robotics Opens Its Robot Tech to Other Companies With New Physical AI Services Unit

Serve Robotics, which builds self-driving sidewalk delivery robots, is moving beyond its own delivery operations to supply technology to other robot makers. The company announced Thursday a new business line called Physical AI Services.

The offering includes connectivity and data tools. Bedrock Robotics, a startup working on self-driving systems for construction equipment, is already a customer. Serve is also collaborating with T-Mobile to bring AI computing power closer to robots, a detail shared alongside its third-quarter earnings.

CEO and co-founder Ali Kashani said the company is addressing the challenge of robots operating in human spaces. Serve's existing robots - its sidewalk delivery machine and a hospital robot gained through its acquisition of Diligent Robotics - aren't going anywhere, he stressed. Instead, the company sees a chance to sell technology it built for its own fleet to firms developing robots for farms, warehouses and other uncontrolled settings.

The new unit offers three products. Serve Link connects field robots to AI systems in data centers, so companies can use more powerful models without carrying all that computing onboard. A data curator tool helps find edge cases in the real-world data robots collect, feeding them back into training. The third is a real-world foundation-model data catalog built from Serve's own sidewalk robots, designed to teach AI models about complex human environments.

Kashani described the strategy as an AWS-style moment: taking internally developed technology and opening it to others. He said the idea, a playbook he credits to Amazon, has been on his mind for years - build the end-to-end application first, then open the platform as the technology matures.

The expansion comes as Serve's delivery business grows while shifting away from Uber toward partners including DoorDash and Wonder.

Source: TechCrunch