Company: SERV
Filing Date: 2025-03-06
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001832483-25-000010
Chunk: 44

Company: Serve Robotics Inc. /DE/
Filing Date: 2025-03-06
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 44
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 COVID-19 pandemic have led to wage inflation.

•On-demand delivery companies in many jurisdictions are battling regulatory pressures to classify gig workers as employees, which would in turn increase labor costs.

•More recently, cities across the United States have introduced maximum limits on how much delivery platforms can charge restaurants and merchants, highlighting the need to lower underlying delivery costs.

Labor cost inflation and regulatory pressures serve as tailwinds that are expected to accelerate the adoption of automated robotic last-mile delivery. While labor costs typically increase over time, hardware and technology costs typically decrease. We expect the cost of cameras, GPU processors, electric motors, batteries, and advanced sensors such as LIDAR to continue to decrease, while mobile networks will become faster and more reliable with higher bandwidth and geographic coverage, which will lead to a downward trend in the cost of building and operating robots.

Delivery Robot Operations

Our sidewalk delivery robots start each day at a central depot located near their operating area. While most robots deploy to and return from their operating area automatically and without further vehicular assistance, some robots may be transported to and from operating areas that are further away in a human-driven vehicle. They are supervised through mobile connectivity and video streaming by remote human operators who can assist robots when necessary, such as at intersection crossings or when robots are unable to navigate certain conditions. In less frequent occasions, if a robot requires physical assistance, such as when a robot is too low on battery to return home or if it has been damaged, a nearby employee is dispatched to repair or return the robot. 

Throughout the day, each robot receives a series of delivery orders from partnered merchants and delivery platforms. Upon acceptance of any such order, the robot navigates to the pick-up location, waits outside, and notifies merchant staff, often through their existing delivery tablets or point-of-sale devices. Once the merchant staff load the package into the robot, it navigates to its drop-off destination. A similar sequence of events results in customers meeting the robot at the curb, unlocking its cargo using their delivery app or on-screen instructions, and retrieving their package.

At night, robots return to their central depot to be recharged, maintained, upgraded when necessary, and prepared for next morning’s deployment. 

Serve’s third-generation robots are designed to carry more goods, enable more deliveries, and further reduce the cost of delivery. They can move roughly twice as fast, travel approximately twice as far on a single charge, and spend 6 more hours in the field each day compared to our prior generation. The third-generation robots also enjoy