Delivery food, minus some stranger’s car. Note: Don’t tip the robot.

How would you feel if you order a burger and fries on Uber Eats and a little robot showed up at your door with your food? If you live in LA or one of the upcoming pilot cities, that could happen. At least, if you ordered that burger from Shake Shack.

We live in a time where AI and robotics are poking a toe in the water to see where they can dip into futuristic society. Ordering dinner from your cellphone was already a new things a few years back. Now, rather than entrust your meal to the passenger’s seat of a random Toyota Corolla, a company called Serverobotics is trying to send your Shake Shack order to your door in an autonomous buggy that’s a cross between Mars Rover and picnic cooler.

It’s a small test case. One Uber Eats affiliated restaurant chain. One major city. The robots have a fairly short range, and if people get fed up with them (food pun semi-intended), they’re pretty easy to mess with or rob. In fairness, though, you could mug delivery drivers too if we’re allowing GTA thinking into the mix.

If everyone follows the law, though, it’s an interesting case.

Sidewalks are easier to navigate than roads. The robots are smaller than cars and less dangerous for a variety of reasons. While, admittedly, nobody probably NEEDS a cute little robot with big eyes painted on the front to bring them their food, it’s at least a step in the direction of larger-scale autonomous transport.

Technology evolves more often than it leaps. If a robot can deliver burgers, it should be able to deliver pizzas. What about ice cream? Introduce some freezing capability. A wedding cake? Maybe a challenge with how delicate and awkward, but a good stretch of the tech. Whole grocery orders? Let’s up the power and capacity.

Just saying… it’ll be a while before that tech gets to the point of “let’s put people in it and go at freeway speeds.” At least, at scale. Yes, I know plenty of companies are testing the technology already.

But let’s take the time and appreciate our new future where you can have hamburgers delivered by robots.