Redefining Food Delivery with Autonomous Vehicles

Motional, an autonomous vehicle company, is best known for its driverless rideshare technology. In an effort to diversify its services and increase vehicle utilization during non-peak hours, Motional partnered with Uber Eats to pilot autonomous delivery in Santa Monica, CA.

The Challenge

These cars weren't fully autonomous yet. They needed a couple of operators to keep them in check. The goal was to figure out a way to keep the system running smoothly while preparing for the day when these vehicles would roam the streets on their own.

My Role

As the Design Lead, I worked with a Product Owner, Researcher, two Prototypers, and an Industrial Designer. My focus was understanding the experience from both the merchant and customer ("Eater") perspectives, developing concepts, and prototypes to uncover opportunities for adjustment and development with this new delivery method.

Eater Insights and Recommendations

To understand "Eater" motivations, I put together storyboards. Saving money, saving time, and feeling secure were the big ones. We scoured social media posts, interviewed folks and sent out surveys to get the data.

Demonstrations of the pain points with existing human delivery.

Storyboard examples helping to drive the discussion on understanding Eater motiviations.

Key Insights:

  • Skipping the Tip: Eaters liked the idea of not having to tip a driver. It felt like a small win, saving them a few bucks.

  • Environmental Concerns: Some Eaters felt guilty about ordering a small burger and fries if it meant a whole car driving out just for them. Made sense, right?

Our findings were shared with Uber, leading to several proposed changes in the app's checkout process. Here’s an example of one:

  • Building Awareness: To better set expectations, additional guidance and information were brought into the app to help Eaters understand this new delivery method.

Initial checkout process

After (increased prominence for awareness and added language on value of choosing autonomous.)

Bonus Concepts + Exploration

Additional concepts were created and shared with Uber to broaden the thinking on guidance, and awareness building.

Building awareness

Building awareness

Picking up your order

Identifying vehicle

Merchant Discovery

Next, we had to get into the merchants' heads. We rode along with vehicle operators, visiting restaurants, and talking to the folks behind the counter. The goal was to understand how this delivery method would work without the vehicle operators. We leveraged the these storyboards to imagine the future experience. You’ll also see screenshots of the current state of one restaurant and operation.

Keypad Access Concept

Webapp Access Concept

Merchant workspace: The Tablet Farm. There are a lot of notifications and systems to keep an eye on!

Loading Orders: Merchants need to leave the store.

Device Management: Merchants were overwhelmed with the number of devices required, nodding to the need for an on-vehicle keypad for authentication.

Operational Challenges: Merchants were juggling a lot—serving customers, loading orders, and keeping things running. We needed an adaptable processes to address parking, loading, and access management without human intervention. Based on our insights, we recommended several changes to the delivery process, such as implementing timers and mitigation plans for edge cases like customer delays, spills, or even mixed up orders 😱.

Outcomes and Impact

The pilot expanded from 2 to 10 merchants, with big names like Shake Shack hopping on board. We delivered over 4,000 orders, proving that this autonomous delivery had some legs. It was a solid start, showing that design-led research and smart insights could help drive the future of delivery.

Thanks to the Motional Delivery team

Alex Steinwald | Sophie Mondale | Don Hogan | Chris Konopka | Ethan Frier