Lawsuits Accuse Serve and Coco Delivery Robots of Scanning Faces in Chicago

Two proposed class action lawsuits filed October 9 in Cook County accuse Coco Robotics and Serve Robotics of violating Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act. The complaints say the sidewalk robots scanned customers' faces and hands as they collected food orders, then kept the data for AI training and shared it with third parties.

Both companies deny the claims. Serve has said its cameras and sensors are used for navigation and that it does not use that data to identify people.

Why it matters: Illinois' biometric law carries statutory damages per violation, and sidewalk robots are camera platforms by design. How these cases go could shape privacy rules for every delivery robot fleet.