For now it is just an idea, but technically feasible: an autonomous truck that moves to offer the products, in the desired areas. It is the new frontier of street food & drink.
It looks like a fantasy kitchen. In fact, not only is it technically feasible, but from a marketing point of view it represents one of the many geniuses of Starbucks. Jungsoo Lee's project – a young South Korean designer – for the largest chain of coffee shops in the world, with nearly 30,000 points of sale. What looks like a middle ground between a style armored car Mad Max and a snowmobile of the next century, it is nothing more than a robo-truck – strictly electrically powered – to be moved where needed in parks and pedestrian areas. Available to young and old, without requiring the presence of baristas and various operators: the driver is also missing, thanks to technology in full development on cars, starting with the famous Tesla.
A decomposable truck
Jungsoo Lee – and this is the real news – imagined it as a completely autonomous vehicle that is divided into two modules. The first includes a platform that is used for travel and becomes a space for sitting and enjoying donuts and coffee. The second, which acts as an upper part in motion, is always automatically unloaded – positioning itself on extendable and recessed supports – and becomes the area for ordering and preparing food and drinks. The Starbucks customer (but it could be that of any other brand in the bar and restaurant sector) enters the module, orders and pays through the app on the smartphone, receives what is ordered and leaves, finding a place on the bench-crawler which is well fixed to the ground.
The effect of the pandemic
It must be said that 2020 – a year marked by travel limitations and the closure of commercial activities – has given a strong impetus to companies investing in innovative means of transport capable of bringing the product directly to (or near) customers' homes. Taking advantage of the basic concepts of the moment: electric operation and autonomous driving. Not surprisingly, a very similar project was presented by another Korean designer: Lee Sungwook posted on Behance – platform dedicated to sharing projects – the render of Streat, an autonomous vehicle equipped with a modular and hyper-connected kitchen that has collected thousands of views and enthusiastic comments. The future of street food & drink it could also be robo-trucks.