Is IdeaLab’s Bill Gross Building a Food Prep and Delivery Robot?
Every once in a while, an interesting patent comes up in a patent search that makes you wonder who’s doing what. Now, don’t get me wrong. Patents are issued all the time, and most of the time, a real product or business is never created. But when it comes to someone like IdeaLab’s Bill Gross — an inventor known for creating dozens of products and companies — you have to wonder what he’s up to.
First, let’s look at copyright. Granted B1 status yesterday, the patent, US 11738466 B1, is titled “Food Preparation and Delivery Robot” The definition of copyright goes on to explain just that:
An automated food preparation and delivery robot includes a communication system configured to receive a food order and address from a customer, a navigation system configured to automatically drive the vehicle to the address, and an automated food preparation system configured to prepare the food in accordance with the food order while en route to the customer’s address.
The automatic food preparation system is programmed to determine the time to drive to the customer’s address, and determine the preparation time to prepare the food according to the food order. If the driving time is greater than the preparation time, the robot waits and starts preparing the food after a delay equal to the driving time minus the preparation time. In this way, the preparation of the food coincides with the arrival at the customer’s address.
We’ve seen a lot of crazy ideas that combine travel and cooking, but this is the first one I’ve seen that is an autonomous robot car and prepared food all in one:
A preferred invention is a self-service food preparation and delivery robot adapted to prepare food orders while en route to a customer’s address, without human assistance in the car. An automated food preparation and delivery robot includes: a vehicle, a communication system configured to receive a food order and address from a customer, a navigation system configured to automatically drive the vehicle to the address; and an automated food preparation system programmed to prepare food according to the food order while it is en route to the customer’s address and dispense the food upon arrival.
Here is a figure from the patent that shows the sequence of processing a food order:
Ambitious and crazy, especially when you consider past business-sponsored ideas involving food, DIY and travel have never been successful at this point.
On the other hand, this is Bill Gross, a well-known inventor and successful businessman. And since Gross, who runs one of Silicon Valley’s longest-running technology incubators in the world, is listed as a sole inventor on the patent, my guess is that this is the idea he’s at least invested in.
However, it remains to be seen whether he plans to implement this concept or not. As I said, most copyrighted ideas remain just that, ideas. But given Gross’s history of both successful companies and deep interest in robotics — he was the founder of Evolution Robotics, a maker of cleaning robots that was acquired by iRobot in 2012 — it’s worth a look.
I’ve reached out to Gross for comment, and I’ll let you know what I hear.
