Deliveroo and Coco Robotics Plan Electric Delivery Robot Rollout Across UK

Written by Maílis Carrilho

•

Published Oct 6, 2026

5 min read

Published Oct 6, 2026

Deliveroo and US-based Coco Robotics have announced an exclusive partnership to introduce pavement delivery robots across five UK locations. Announced on October 5, the rollout is scheduled to begin in Canary Wharf, London, this month, followed by Milton Keynes, Leeds, Stockton-on-Tees and Nottingham in the coming weeks and months. The agreement marks Coco’s entry into the UK and Deliveroo’s first use of autonomous delivery vehicles in the country.

The fully electric robots will handle short-distance orders, while Deliveroo says its rider network will continue to fulfill the majority of deliveries. For the sustainability sector, the initiative offers an opportunity to assess whether small electric vehicles can replace some motorized delivery trips while operating safely in shared pedestrian spaces.

Canary Wharf Will Host the Initial Trial

Canary Wharf Group describes the initial deployment as a 12-month trial. Participating businesses will initially include Patty&Bun, bakery Signorelli and café and restaurant Beam in Wood Wharf. The service is expected to expand to additional merchants, including Ole & Steen, Royal China and Din Tai Fung, at a later stage.

The companies also plan investment in local depots, charging facilities and operational infrastructure, with jobs in maintenance, logistics and operations. However, their announcements do not specify the investment value, initial UK fleet size or number of positions expected.

For participating restaurants, the trial could provide another way to fulfill nearby orders. Its commercial value will depend on practical factors such as collection times, delivery reliability and how easily staff can incorporate robot loading into existing workflows.

How the Robots Will Operate

According to Deliveroo, Coco’s robots travel at walking pace and use sensors, cameras and AI-driven navigation. They process environmental information onboard to respond to changing conditions. Deployments will be phased, with location-specific speed limits and routing policies, supported by supervising operators trained on local conditions.

That operating model makes route suitability a central issue. A short distance between a restaurant and customer does not necessarily mean an easy delivery: crossings, narrow pavements, temporary obstructions and the final collection point can affect performance.

For businesses evaluating the service, useful measures would include successful deliveries per robot, average journey time, the frequency of human intervention and performance during busy periods. These indicators would help establish where robots offer a dependable addition to the delivery network.

Zero Tailpipe Emissions Require a Broader Carbon Assessment

The companies describe the robots’ deliveries as zero-emission. Their electric propulsion avoids exhaust emissions during the journey, but a full carbon assessment must also consider charging electricity, vehicle and battery manufacturing, maintenance and supporting operations.

Research published in Environmental Science & Technology in 2021 illustrates why automation alone does not establish an emissions advantage. The study examined suburban parcel-delivery systems combining vans and robots, finding that vehicle electrification, electricity carbon intensity and delivery density strongly influenced life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions. Its results cannot be applied directly to Coco’s UK food-delivery service, but they demonstrate the importance of assessing the complete delivery system.

For this rollout, the most useful comparison would be emissions per completed delivery against the transport mode that would otherwise have served the order. Replacing a gasoline-powered car journey offers a different potential benefit from replacing a bicycle or electric bicycle trip.

The announcements do not provide a UK-specific life-cycle assessment or quantified emissions-saving target. Tracking charging demand, empty return journeys, equipment lifespan and any support-vehicle movements would help substantiate future environmental claims.

Accessibility Will be Part of the Deployment

Coco’s existing partnership with BlindSquare, a navigation application for blind and partially sighted people, will form part of the UK rollout. Robots will share information about pavement hazards so the application can alert users to obstacles.

In an April announcement, Coco explained that its robots log hazards such as fallen electric scooters and damaged curb access points. BlindSquare converts this information into spoken warnings, while users can report cleared obstacles to help update routing maps.

This data-sharing function offers a potential additional benefit. Nevertheless, evaluating accessibility should also cover the robots themselves, including whether they leave sufficient passing space and behave predictably around pedestrians, wheelchair users and people with visual impairments.

Building on Earlier International Deployments

The UK agreement extends an existing relationship between Coco and DoorDash, whose portfolio includes Deliveroo and Wolt. In April 2025, DoorDash announced Coco robot deliveries in Los Angeles and Chicago, building on a Wolt pilot in Helsinki. DoorDash subsequently expanded the partnership to Miami and added selected grocery and everyday-essential orders through DashMart.

Those deployments provide operational experience, but the UK trials will need to demonstrate performance under local conditions. For retailers, delivery platforms and local authorities, the practical question is where robots can reliably serve customers while reducing the environmental burden of delivery. Evidence on completed orders, displaced motorized trips and pedestrian accessibility will be more informative than fleet growth alone.

Source:

Written by:

Maílis Carrilho

Sustainability Research Analyst

Maílis Carrilho is a Sustainability Research Analyst (Intern) at Net Zero Compare, contributing research and analysis on climate tech, carbon policies, and sustainable solutions. She supports the team in developing fact-based content and insights to help companies and readers navigate the evolving sustainability landscape.

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