A delivery robot battles the elements in West Hollywood, gets support from online fans: ‘Go coco, go!’
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- A delivery robot was caught on video powering through a flooded street in West Hollywood
- Rainwater seeps into businesses in nearby Fairfax District
The latest deluge of rain has made getting around Los Angeles doubly difficult for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists. But in this digital age, food delivery robots are now joining the rest of us in the struggle to maneuver L.A.’s rain-soaked streets.
On Monday, heavy rainfall pummeled Southern California, flooding streets and curbs with several inches of water.
On Melrose Place in West Hollywood, Mona Seresht spotted a pink and orange Coco Robotics bot struggling through a flooded street on its delivery route.
A familiar sight in Los Angeles, the cooler-sized AI-controlled sidewalk bots deliver everyday essentials and groceries to customers. But this bot was battling more than just uneven sidewalks and other barriers.
Seresht took a video of the bot, with the text, “No one knows how to act when it rains in LA [shaking my head],” and posted it on Instagram. The post has garnered more than 200,000 likes and more than 3,00 comments, many of which expressed sympathy for the bot.
Many Instagram followers cheered the bot on, with one posting, “Go coco, go,” and others calling for someone to help the robot.
The Coco Robotics website describes the delivery bot as being “weather proof” and “engineered for efficient city travel.” That description was put to the test during this latest downpour.
The bots continuously assess their surroundings and will automatically reroute if they encounter obstructions such as standing water, debris or blocked sidewalks, said Carl Hansen, vice president of government relations at Coco.
“Each robot is supervised in real time by a trained remote operator who can intervene immediately if needed,” Hansen said. “If a robot were to become stuck, our field operations team would be dispatched promptly to recover it.”
In cases of severe weather or flooding where sidewalks are not safely navigable, Coco may temporarily pause operations or reroute a bot until conditions improve, according to the company.
Another wave of heavy showers and thunderstorms are forecast to sweep across the region Tuesday night, bringing risks of flash flooding, rock and mudslides and debris flows, as well as high winds and mountain snow.
As the rain came down Monday, Seresht, who is a cosmetic dermatology physician assistant on Melrose Place, told The Times she had a brief gap in her schedule due to patient delays caused by the weather.
“My team and I walked down the stairs to check out the rain and noticed the Coco Robot zip by quickly and by the time we got by the door and looked outside, it was struggling, trying to get up the curb,” she said.
Seresht said when she and her co-workers order food, it is delivered by a robot and that the two delivery bots that dominate Melrose Place are from Coco and Serve Robotics.
“Unfortunately, like many places in Los Angeles, the roads aren’t as equipped to handle extreme rainfall,” she said. “During heavy rain, it’s not uncommon to notice some temporary water pooling near the curbs, especially in spots where the pavement is uneven.”
Luckily, Seresht said, the Coco bot she recorded struggling in the rain was ultimately able to back up and make its way up the sidewalk to, hopefully, get to its destination.
Although Coco has real-time visibility into every robot’s location and status, without specific identifiers — such as an identification or serial number, exact location or time stamp — it’s difficult for Coco Robotics to determine which robot appears in Seresht’s video or what stage of a trip it was in, Hansen said.
“If a delivery had been missed, our team would have been alerted immediately, and there’s no indication that occurred here, so Coco likely made it,” he said.
The downpour created more problems in nearby neighborhoods.
Almost two miles east, a block of businesses in the Fairfax district, along Melrose Avenue near Martel Avenue, reported rainwater rising from the flooded sidewalk and seeping into their storefronts.
After a group of backcountry skiers and their guides encountered an avalanche northwest of Lake Tahoe, six were rescued. But others remained missing late Tuesday.
One store manager, Keagan Johnston of Brooklyn Projects, told KTLA-TV that the Los Angeles Department of Sanitation had pre-deployed a water pumping truck to the flood-prone area but that it wasn’t helpful.
The Times reached out to the department for comment, but it did not immediately respond. The department told KTLA-TV that a powerful, sudden and fast-moving storm had overwhelmed the stormwater system.
About six miles west, in the Sawtelle neighborhood, the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to an incident near the 12300 block of West Olympic Boulevard where seven cars were stalled at a flooded intersection. The fire crew assisted one person from a vehicle but reported no injuries.
By early Tuesday, a large swath of Southern California had received more than an inch of rain, according to the National Weather Service. Downtown L.A. has recorded 1.97 inches; Long Beach, 1.74 inches; Canoga Park, 2.16 inches; Alhambra, 2.24 inches; and Ojai, 1.52 inches.
By the end of the week, forecasters predict totals as high as 4 inches in coastal and valley areas and up to 8 inches in the mountains and foothills.
Times staff writers Grace Toohey and Jaweed Kaleem contributed to this report.
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