This BOT’s for you
The AI-enabled ‘Beer Outdoor Transporter’ lugs your cold ones
Cargo-carrying robots have yet to go mainstream, but they certainly make for appealing internet videos.
They tote groceries around the supermarket and hold your luggage at the airport. In one wild display, someone retrofitted a tank of beer, a nozzle and a camera onto a robotic dog, which then showed a unique “peeing” functionality.
Now, there’s a stuff-toting machine that doubles as an autonomous cooler designed to follow you around the pool or backyard bearing a dozen cans of beer.
The Dutch brewing company Heineken recently unveiled the “Beer Outdoor Transporter” — a branding concept cooler that uses motion sensors to trail behind its owner. The company launched an online raffle Thursday for people who want to own one.
While it can’t apply sunscreen, blow off the sand from the beach or cook your Independence Day hot dogs, it seems to solve one issue.
“Nobody loves lugging around a giant cooler … in the 100-degree heat,” said Joshua Egan, brand director at Heineken USA. The robot was built around a “charming” AI personality. And was shown this summer to mark the nation’s return to semi-normalcy after gatherings last summer were discouraged due to the coronavirus. It was also unveiled to draw attention to the brand’s new beer can design, as the beverage category faces increasing competition from hard seltzers.
It doesn’t have to house Heineken products. The robot is constructed to tote around ice, so you could use any beverage you’d want to keep cold.
The robot looks like a mix between WALL-E, the animated droid from Pixar films, and a traditional green garbage truck. It’s about knee-high, sits on six wheels and can talk to its owner. “Down here! I’m the cooler with wheels,” the droid can say.
In front is a touch screen and a series of cameras and sensors to help it avoid obstacles. At the rear, there’s a cooler backpack, branded with Heineken’s logo. The company won’t reveal how many it’s making, only that it worked with a series of third parties over the past several months to get it built.
Winners will be announced within the next week and the product will ship from Los Angeles soon after. There has been no mention of plans to sell the robot beyond that.
The new beer robot serves a similar purpose to Gita, a twowheel robotic vehicle by Piaggio Fast Forward, which carries up to 40 pounds of cargo around big cities today. It’s expensive, at $3,250, but it’s the first consumer robot in the U.S. with such functionality. In April, a YouTuber gave Boston Dynamics’ robotic dog Spot the ability to pee beer into a red cup. A video of the project reached more than 100 million views.
Heineken’s robot can’t do that. But it does seem to roll through grass, over boardwalks and on concrete with ease. It doesn’t have legs, so can’t handle steps well. That means you may still need to pick it up. And it’s kind of heavy, weighing 70 pounds before you add ice or drinks. It can travel 15 miles between charges, the company says. The robot features two modes. One is to follow you. The other allows an operator to control it via an app.