Mathilde's Kiwi Bot

If you frequent Downtown Berkeley, or if you've been following along with my Instagram stories you're sure to be familiar with Kiwi Bots, the cute food delivery robots that zoom around Downtown and the Cal campus. If you don't frequent Downtown Berkeley or watch my IG stories, then you're probably wondering what on earth a food delivery robot is!

Kiwi Bots are super cute robots that have taken over the sidewalks of Berkeley. Created by the Kiwi Campus team at UC Berkeley, Kiwi Bots are the cutest way to get your meals delivered from local restaurants. You order through an app, chose a delivery location within the zone and the Kiwi Bot brings the meal to you in its insulated body that keeps food hot or cold. As you can probably imagine, Mathilde is obsessed with them! She loves seeing them on the street when we're out and about and always wants to stop to chat to them - or give them a hug.

In the lead up to Mathilde's birthday she kept asking for a pet Kiwi Bot as her present. While a delivery robot of our own would be amazing, they're not really something that's available to purchase - and if they were I imagine they'd be super pricey. What is available to purchase, however, is a plush Kiwi Bot! Perfect as a gift for Mathilde's birthday.

Now, there's only one way to get a plush Kiwi Bot, and that's to order it through the Kiwi app and have it delivered by a Kiwi Bot! How fun is that? 

As I was going to be away at the Mom 2.0 conference in Austin for Mathilde's birthday, I organized to have a plush Kiwi Bot delivered a few days before Mathilde's birthday as a special treat. She had no idea that the plush Kiwi Bots even existed and I kept it a secret so it would be more of a surprise. Our home is just one street out of the Kiwi Bot delivery zone, so I chose a spot close to campus that I knew would be fairly quiet for our delivery. I told Mathilde that we were going out to run errands and she hopped on her bike ready to go.

As we approached the delivery location Mathilde was excited to see a Kiwi Bot stopped on the sidewalk. She jumped off her bike and ran over to give it a hug. Little did she know that this this Kiwi Bot contained a special delivery for her. 

As Mathilde chatted to the Kiwi Bot I used the app to unlock the top to reveal her surprise inside. She was a little surprised at first as we've never actually had a delivery from a Kiwi Bot before so she had never seen one opening like this.

I asked Mathilde what she saw inside and she excitedly told me that there was a Kiwi Bot inside the Kiwi Bot! I told her to pull it out, but she still didn't realize that it was for her so she was quite hesitant to do so. She pulled it out, gave it a hug and quickly stuffed it back in.

When I told Mathilde that the plush Kiwi Bot was actually for her she grabbed it back out again so fast with a big smile on her face. Her very own Kiwi Bot, just like she had asked for!

After a few cuddles with her new Kiwi Bot it was time to close up the real Kiwi Bot so it could get back to its delivery work. Mathilde loves pressing buttons so I gave her my phone and she pressed the "I got my food" button on the app and watched as the top closed.

I made sure to take lots of pics of Mathilde with her new Kiwi Bot and the "Mummy" Kiwi Bot.

Plus a family photo! Aww... aren't they cute together?

Mathilde then hopped back on her own delivery vehicle (her Yuba Flip Flop balance bike) and we waved goodbye to the real Kiwi Bot which zoomed off for its next delivery. Right now the delivery bots are remote control, so I'm sure that someone at Kiwi Campus must have been watching all of this!

We continued on with our errands (we did actually have other errands to run) and Mathilde made sure to show her new plush Kiwi Bot to every other real Kiwi Bot that we came across.

This fun surprise made for one very happy birthday girl! Thanks Kiwi Campus for making Mathilde's birthday wish come true!

If you're in Berkeley and want to order your very own plush Kiwi Bot too, simply download the Kiwi app (you can find it here) and go to the "No Delivery Fee" products category to select the plushie and order.

Do you have anything in your town/city that doesn't exist anywhere else? Mathilde is convinced that everyone has delivery robots but they're actually only here in Berkeley as well as a handful of other university campuses around the country. I'm sure we'll be seeing them everywhere in the future though!