Remember all those hours you spent wandering around, flicking Poké Balls at Pidgeys and dutifully scanning PokéStops for Professor Willow? It turns out you weren’t just helping advance Pokémon research, you were secretly moonlighting as a robot navigation instructor.
In a twist that has the internet doing a collective double-take, data collected from millions of Pokémon Go players is now being used to train a fleet of food delivery robots. That’s right, all your hard work catching ’em all will now help a little droid deliver someone’s burrito.
From “Field Research” to Food Delivery
Here’s how this wild crossover happened. Niantic Spatial, an AI company spun off from the developers of Pokémon Go, has built a mind-blowingly detailed AI model. This model uses a massive dataset of over 30 billion images captured by Pokémon Go players.
Many of these images were collected through a 2020 in-game feature called “Field Research,” which rewarded players with items for scanning real-world landmarks and locations. While you thought you were just getting extra Stardust, you were actually helping to build one of the world’s largest visual maps.
Now, a company called Coco Robotics—which happens to be backed by OpenAI’s Sam Altman—is tapping into this powerful tool. They will use Niantic’s AI model to teach their fleet of 1,000 sidewalk delivery bots how to navigate the complex streets of cities like Los Angeles and Chicago.
The genius of this system is that it allows the robots to “see” and identify their location with centimeter-level accuracy. This is a huge advantage in dense urban areas where tall buildings often scramble traditional GPS signals, a problem that can leave other delivery bots confused and lost.
While Niantic only announced its plan to build this navigation model in 2024, years after the scanning feature was introduced, it’s clear their ambition goes beyond gaming. The company’s ultimate goal? To create a continuously updated, live 3D map of the entire world.
So, the next time you see a delivery robot confidently rolling down the sidewalk, give it a little nod. You might have been the one who taught it how to get there.
