DUBAI: Talabat has started testing delivery robots that ride elevators to complete the final leg of food orders inside a Dubai high-rise, under a pilot with Singapore-based robotics company Quik. 

The pilot is taking place at Dubai Digital Park's A6 commercial building in Dubai Silicon Oasis. Under the trial, delivery riders hand orders to a QuikBot robot at a designated point inside the building, after which the robot takes the elevator and delivers the order to the customer's door. Customers collect their orders using a one-time password. 

The system is designed to handle the part of a high-rise delivery that can take additional time for riders, including entering the building, waiting for elevators and traveling to individual floors. Talabat said the trial will assess how much time the system can save riders and how the two companies' technology works together in a live delivery setting. 

Simonida Subotic, vice president and managing director of Talabat UAE, said the pilot would let the company test autonomous robots for building access and elevator travel. QuikBot founder and CEO Alan Ng said the company sees buildings as an important part of autonomous delivery, particularly when robots need to access lobbies and elevators. 

QuikBot's system uses its QuikSync platform to give robots a digital identity and manage their interaction with buildings and people, and the company says its autonomous delivery platform is already being used in operations in Singapore and the UAE. The Talabat pilot builds on that existing footprint: QuikBot has said it is deploying its delivery robots in a mixed-use commercial zone within Dubai Digital Park, an area spanning eight four-story buildings used for business, hospitality and retail, with future phases planned for residential towers, a hospital and a university. 

The companies signed the MoU on Sept. 7 and are using the Dubai pilot to assess whether the technology could eventually be used more widely across Talabat's delivery operations. They have not said how many robots or buildings are involved in the current test, when it might expand, or whether delivery costs would change if the system is rolled out further.