{"id":407063,"date":"2026-09-22T10:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T10:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/407063\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T10:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T10:28:13","slug":"food-delivery-robots-considered-by-st-pete-officials-reports-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/407063\/","title":{"rendered":"Food Delivery Robots Considered By St. Pete Officials: Reports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. PETERSBURG, FL \u2014 Food delivery robots, similar to those frequently seen in major cities like Atlanta, Miami and Los Angeles, could be coming to St. Petersburg. <\/p>\n<p>St. Petersburg City Council voted unanimously on Thursday to explore the possibility of bringing autonomous food delivery services to the city, according to multiple reports. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article-subscribe\">\n  <a class=\"article-subscribe-link\" href=\"https:\/\/patch.com\/florida\/stpete\/subscribe?utm_source=amp&amp;utm_campaign=subscribe&amp;utm_medium=mobile&amp;utm_term=subscribe_in_article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>The discussion was centered on bringing these delivery services to &#8220;areas with a strong concentration of restaurants and cafes, in addition to areas with limited and restricted parking,&#8221; according to the new business item on the matter submitted by council member Deborah Figgs- Sanders for Thursday&#8217;s meeting agenda. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I was actually traveling, I experienced one of the autonomous food delivery services,&#8221; she <a href=\"https:\/\/stpetecatalyst.com\/council-to-explore-autonomous-food-delivery-services\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">told the St. Pete Catalyst<\/a>. &#8220;It was so incredibly interesting and I thought, &#8216;Why can&#8217;t we do something like that?'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The service could help relieve traffic and parking congestion in busy areas, she added. <\/p>\n<p>Figgs-Sanders said during the meeting that a company approached the city two years ago about bringing these services to St. Pete. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They completed all the documents, proof of insurance, and was supposed to start and for some reason did not,&#8221; she said. <\/p>\n<p>The owner of Ferg&#8217;s Sports Bar &amp; Grill, Mark Ferguson, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfla.com\/news\/pinellas-county\/st-pete-city-council-considering-autonomous-robots-for-food-delivery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">told WFLA<\/a> that a robot delivery service could bring him extra business while offering a unique experience to those visiting St. Petersburg. <\/p>\n<p>Others opposed the plan, with one resident telling WFLA, &#8220;They should not be on the sidewalk. There&#8217;s not congestion on the sidewalk because it is. We don&#8217;t need any more. So yeah, I&#8217;m dead no on that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A resident working in food delivery <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtsp.com\/video\/news\/local\/pinellascounty\/st-petersburg-considers-food-delivery-robots-human-couriers-say-it-threatens-their-income\/67-a0a36a71-1273-4ff8-beb6-caee41602b9c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">told WTSP<\/a> that he worried this would affect his job. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s stressing me out,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I see it for what it is; it&#8217;s an attack on our collective livelihoods.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, FL \u2014 Food delivery robots, similar to those frequently seen in major cities like Atlanta, Miami&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-407063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}