The future — or at least some version of it — arrived in downtown San Jose this week as Santa Monica-based Coco Robotics deployed a fleet of 20 hot pink delivery robots to deliver restaurant food and groceries.
We’re a pretty tech-friendly city, so it’s not a huge surprise that Coco picked San Jose as its first Bay Area location. It’s already got 1,000 robots making deliveries in Los Angeles, Chicago, Jersey City and Miami.
CEO Zach Rash, a robotics engineer who co-founded the company in 2020 when he was at UCLA, grew up in Menlo Park and said he’s excited to have Coco make its Bay Area debut. “San Jose has all the characteristics we look for,” he said, citing downtown’s robust restaurant scene, its walkability and its relative density.
A Coco deliverybot crosses a street in front of San Pedro Square Market in downtown San Jose. The Santa Monica-based robotics company deployed 20 of the bots in downtown San Jose in April 2026. (Photo courtesy Coco Robotics)
Another thing San Jose has that Coco looks for in a city is traffic congestion. Rash says Coco can help with that by reducing the number of delivery drivers on the road. The Coco robots, at least, don’t double park in the middle of the street. “I think it’s a lot better way to be building our downtown and cities of the future,” he said.
Customers who use the Uber Eats delivery service can opt-in for a robot delivery and track the bot’s progress toward their location on their smartphone. The Coco robots are about the size of a camping cooler and travel autonomously on the sidewalks (though human operators can take over if a bot gets stuck or encounters an obstacle).
Rash said since the Coco robots only make one delivery at a time and operate in a 2-mile radius, it’s almost impossible to get the wrong order or for your food to show up at the wrong temperature or crushed. That leads to more customer satisfaction and better business for the restaurants. Coco robots don’t take tips, either, which saves customers a little money.
Of course, you know there are going to be people who’ll hate the bots sight unseen and probably hate them more if they see one rolling along on the sidewalk. The same thing happened when electric scooters first started zipping along on sidewalks and streets.
Would it help to know that Coco robots are actually working to help the visually impaired? Carl Hansen, Coco’s vice president of government relations, said the robots are continually navigating neighborhoods and keeping logs about obstructions, streets without curb cuts and other hazards to improve efficiency. But that information isn’t just helpful to delivery robots.
“The challenges that face Coco are the exact same challenges people in wheelchairs and blind people face,” Hansen said.
So Coco is sharing its street data with BlindSquare, a GPS app for the visually impaired that alerts users about obstructions in their path. The two companies are exploring a two-way data swap in the future, so BlindSquare can help the Coco robots, as well.
So go ahead and have a Coco deliver burrito or sandwich for lunch. It’s for a good cause.
WILLOW GLEN TOUR RETURNS: Five homes in a historic San Jose neighborhood will be on display again this year for the 43rd annual Willow Glen Home Tour on May 2-3. As usual, one of the homes will include a garden party with a unique boutique and lunch available to buy.
The tour again benefits San Jose Day Nursery, which has been providing child care in the downtown area since 1916.
Tickets, which are $50 in advance or $55 on the day of the event, can be purchased online at willowglenhometour.com or in person at D’anna’s Flowers, 1712 Meridian Ave., or Bella James boutique, 1371 Lincoln Ave.
GETTING INKED: If you’re looking for people who are a font of knowledge about letterpresses and ink, you’ll find just that type this weekend at History Park in San Jose. The 11th annual Bay Area Printers’ Fair & Wayzgoose on Saturday is a celebration of the region’s printmaking community.
You can explore the park’s Print Shop — which is staffed by the all-volunteer San Jose Printers’ Guild — get a demonstration of letterpress printing and even make your own printed keepsake. The event, which is free and runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., also includes a bevy of vendors selling prints, books and other craft items. Get more information at www.historysanjose.org.
Jim Gard, chair of the San Jose Printers’ Guild, demonstrates how he used a F. M. Weiler’s Liberty printing press to make bookmarks commemorating the 50th anniversary of the print shop at History Park, on April 27, 2023, at History Park in San Jose, Calif. The San Jose Printers’ Guild is holding its annual Printers’ Fair and Wayzgoose, on April 29, the exact 50th anniversary of the opening of the print shop at History Park.(Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)