Honda's Cute Delivery Bot Is Just What We Need

Autonomous delivery robots can't come soon enough. Especially as this pandemic begins to ease, we're now conditioned to expect mail delivery within hours, not days or weeks. And we're speaking as car people who are currently waiting on replacement parts, which were supposed to be here last week. Honda has a plan for that with autonomous delivery vehicles, though these will look like little cubes, not aFord EscapelikeFord and Walmart's autonomous delivery idea.

The US patent, which Honda also claimed in Japan, is for an "unmanned delivery system that delivers baggage using an autonomous mobile device. Baggage is put in and taken out from a side surface of the autonomous mobile device, which may be convenient for users."

From the drawings, it looks like a hot dog cart without the umbrella on the roof. It features a few large doors and compartments, along with many smaller doors and cargo holds. We're guessing these will be lockable, only openable to the rightful owners. Otherwise, we could see some young hooligan taking all of the packages at once.

The patent also explains a display part for the rolling delivery drone. It notes that it could be liquid crystal or electroluminescent and display the delivery status on the door. We were guessing your door or address might light up on the delivery vehicle, to show you which box to open. The more we think about it, it seems kind of fun. However, those screens can also display advertisements, so maybe less fun.