Kiwi Campus
| Company type | Private startup |
|---|---|
| Industry | Food delivery, Robotics |
| Founded | 2017 |
| Founder | Felipe Chávez, Jason Oviedo, Sergio Pachón |
| Headquarters | Berkeley , United States |
Area served | California (Berkeley, Palo Alto, San Jose), United States (30+ universities) |
Key people | Felipe Chávez (CEO) |
| Products | Autonomous delivery robots (Kiwibots) |
| Website | kiwicampus |
Kiwi Campus, commonly known as Kiwi, is a Colombian startup focused on food delivery services in California, primarily utilizing autonomous robots named Kiwibots. Established in 2017 at the University of California, Berkeley, Kiwi currently serves areas including Berkeley, the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, and San Jose.
Operations and controversies
Kiwi deploys three distinct types of robots: one that retrieves orders from restaurants, a semi-autonomous tricycle responsible for transporting sorted orders over most of the distance, and a compact four-wheeled "Kiwibot" designed to deliver up to five orders during the final approximately 300 meters to customers. The company states an average delivery duration of 27 minutes. Kiwibots are equipped with animated digital eyes, allowing customers to signal them to open their cargo compartments.
Produced in China and assembled in Berkeley, each Kiwibot offers roughly one cubic foot of storage capacity. They navigate using six cameras and binocular vision systems, operating largely autonomously to detect and avoid obstacles. Operators located remotely in Medellín oversee the robots and intervene when necessary, such as for street crossings. The robots employ artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms that adapt their speed depending on pedestrian proximity. Earlier versions depended on iPhones for sensing capabilities and required manual route training; their small wheels struggled with uneven sidewalks, demanding close human supervision. In cases of significant malfunctions like tampering or GPS failures, human staff complete deliveries on foot or by Segway.
Kiwi's operations have sparked controversy: investigations reveal that Colombian workers remotely control the robots every 5 to 10 seconds rather than solely intervening when needed, raising questions about the actual level of AI autonomy. These employees earn around $2 per hour, far below U.S. minimum wage standards. Furthermore, humans collect orders from off-campus eateries and subsequently transfer them to robots that cover an average distance of 200 meters.
History
Kiwi Campus traces its origins to a courier service initiated by CEO Felipe Chávez in Bogotá in 2015. In 2016, Chávez co-founded the company alongside CTO Jason Oviedo and COO Sergio Pachón at UC Berkeley's Skydeck accelerator, rapidly substituting human couriers with robotic delivery after identifying high operational costs in the U.S. Their initial trials involved single-robot deliveries but proved inefficient.
The first Kiwibot prototypes debuted on Berkeley’s campus in March 2017; by May of that year, 20 units were active locally. Expansion reached Stanford University by early 2018, and by late May 2018, over 10,000 deliveries had been completed within Berkeley. Plans for that year included growth into Palo Alto, San Jose, and Los Angeles markets. The company has also branched out into business-to-business delivery services. In November 2018, Chávez was honored with an entrepreneurship award from MIT.
In December 2018, a Kiwibot experienced a battery malfunction resulting in a fire near Berkeley’s student union building; this incident prompted a temporary return to human couriers.
Kiwi Campus launched a pilot program in Sacramento in August 2019 and expanded service to San Jose by July 2020. As of 2024, the company operates at more than 30 universities across the United States. In April 2024, Kiwi acquired Auto Mobility Solutions, a robotic chip manufacturer based in Taipei, citing geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China as a strategic motivation.