St. Petersburg could begin exploring autonomous food-delivery services in restaurant-heavy parts of the city and other areas where limited or restricted parking complicates deliveries.
City Council member Deborah Figgs-Sanders — who chairs the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority board and serves as secretary of Forward Pinellas — is asking her colleagues Thursday to send the issue to committee. The discussion would cover what St. Petersburg could do to encourage autonomous delivery and how the city could regulate it.
Florida law already allows “personal delivery devices” on sidewalks and crosswalks and lets cities and counties regulate their safe operation. The technology has moved beyond the experimental stage elsewhere in Florida.
Coco Robotics and DoorDash expanded autonomous deliveries to Miami in November 2025, and Serve Robotics brought its Uber Eats delivery robots to downtown Fort Lauderdale and Las Olas Boulevard the next month. Coco has said more than 100 of its robots were operating across several Miami neighborhoods.
As those fleets have grown, local governments have begun writing rules around them. Miami-Dade County has proposed requiring operators to obtain permits and follow restrictions covering speed, operating areas and hours, geofencing, incident reporting and access around curb ramps and transit stops.
St. Petersburg is earlier in that process. Figgs-Sanders’ request would not authorize a service or pilot program, and the agenda identifies no operator, restaurant partner or operating area. If council agrees Thursday, those questions would move to committee.