• Kiwibot, an autonomous last-mile delivery droid manufacturer, has strengthened its operations to San Jose, Miami-Dade County, Pittsburgh, and Detroit, in partnership with the Knight Foundation, a non-profit foundation providing grants in journalism, communities, and the arts.

• Kiwibot will deploy fleets of up to 10 droid units with one supervisor for each city. The selected pilot projects range from local business deliveries to community kitchens, to deliver products including library books and pharmaceuticals.

• The robots have been deployed to map the four cities since July prior to the official launch, and thus far have traveled 1,455 miles, mapped 368 miles, and shared 20,000 data points such as sidewalk conditions, and vehicle and pedestrian traffic, with the city and county authorities for their use.

<ul><li> Analyst QuickTake: Kiwibot has already conducted (or scheduled) pilots in each of these cities through several partnerships, and therefore, partnering with the Knight Foundation should strengthen its presence in these locations. The company partnered with authorities (April 2021) to test robotic food deliveries in Bloomfield, Pittsburgh from June to November this year. Kiwibot also partnered with the city of San Jose in July 2020, to launch delivery droids in two neighborhoods, with the participation of around 120 businesses, including Shopify and Ordermark. The partnership with Shopify was extended in April 2021, to include more locations in San Jose, Miami, Pittsburgh, and Detroit. </ul>