Deliveroo robot delivery arrives in London this month
Coco Robotics brings sidewalk delivery bots to Canary Wharf this month, with Milton Keynes, Leeds, Nottingham and Stockton-on-Tees next in line.
Deliveroo robot delivery starts in London this month, the company's first use of autonomous vehicles instead of human riders anywhere in the UK.
The service launches at Canary Wharf in October 2026 through an exclusive partnership with Coco Robotics, the Sam Altman-backed robotics firm making its UK debut. Six-wheeled, fully electric units will carry orders from Wood Wharf kitchens to nearby flats and offices at walking pace along existing footpaths.
Patty&Bun, the bakery Signorelli and the cafe Beam are the first three restaurants signed up. Din Tai Fung, Ole & Steen and Royal China are named as early additions once the service beds in.
The robots don't commute, strike or need a GMB recognition deal.
Deliveroo plans to expand fast. Milton Keynes, Leeds, Stockton-on-Tees and Nottingham are named as the next four cities, each needing its own depot and charging point before robots can run.
Riders still carry most orders
Miki Kuusi, Deliveroo's chief executive and head of international for parent company DoorDash, said the choice of location was deliberate: "London is where Deliveroo was born, so it feels fitting that we're launching our first UK autonomous delivery service here." The company says robots are additive, not a replacement: the majority of orders will keep going to human riders, with robots taking on shorter, repeat trips through dense urban blocks.
That framing matters in a market where Deliveroo signed a recognition agreement with the GMB union in 2022 covering around 90,000 riders. Robots sit outside that deal, and the company has not said how large the UK fleet will eventually be.
A crowded sidewalk race
Deliveroo arrives late. Just Eat already runs ground robots in Milton Keynes and Bristol, and Uber Eats has used Starship Technologies units in Leeds since last year. Coco itself lands in Britain with a fleet already working in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Jersey City, Helsinki and Turku.
The robots carry a second feature. Coco has partnered with the accessibility app BlindSquare, feeding the hazard data they log on pavements – loose paving, parked bikes, scaffolding – into spoken alerts for visually impaired pedestrians, delivered about ten metres before each obstacle.
Canary Wharf, flat and largely car-free, is an easy testbed. Whether the robots hold up on residential terraces and wet pavements further from the City is the part of the plan nobody has tested yet.
More on DoorDash's robot kitchen bet and how UK delivery sales have moved this year.
