Delivery Robots Accused Of Scanning Customer Faces , Sharing Biometric Data | Business

The battle over Chicago’s food delivery robots has reached the courts, with two customers accusing the companies behind them of collecting their biometric data without consent. The men filed separate class-action lawsuits in Cook County court Oct. 9 against Coco Robotics and Serve Robotics, alleging the companies violated a state privacy law.

They claim the companies’ machines scanned their faces and hands without their knowledge or consent. Both companies dispute the allegations. The lawsuits allege the robots’ cameras and LiDAR — a technology that sends out laser pulses to measure distances and map the surrounding environment — captured measurements of customers’ faces and hands as they approached the machines to retrieve their orders.

Mitchell Breidinger, from the Near North Side, says he ordered groceries through DoorDash in September 2025 and never chose robot delivery. But his order was assigned to a Coco robot, according to his lawsuit. When it arrived, he had to stand close to the machine to enter a code and retrieve his groceries.

Breidinger alleges the robot’s cameras recorded his face, head and hands, while its LiDAR sensors measured their geometry. His lawsuit also alleges a remote operator watched video of the delivery in real time. He says Coco did not tell him in writing that it would collect his biometric information, explain how long it would keep the data or obtain his written consent.

Barry Schain, a Lincoln Park resident, alleges a similar experience with Serve Robotics. He says he has received three deliveries from Serve robots, most recently Oct. 4, when an Uber Eats order was assigned to a robot even though he had not selected robot delivery, according to the lawsuit.

Both lawsuits claim the companies retain video and sensor data to train artificial intelligence systems. Schain’s lawsuit also points to Serve’s disclosures about licensing video and LiDAR datasets to third parties for AI training. Breidinger’s lawsuit claims Coco has shared robot-collected data with OpenAI and other third parties.