First Time Use of an Autonomous Food Delivery Robot: Effects of Affect and Delivery Scenarios

The objective of the study was to examine the effect of users’ emotions and delivery outcomes from sidewalk autonomous delivery robots on user experience and perception of the robots. Participants’ emotions were induced by specific clips from movies and were measured by a self-report emotion scale. Two delivery scenarios were designed to mimic two extreme delivery outcomes where the delivered food was either on time and as expected or late and not as expected. Results showed that delivery outcomes led to significantly different user experiences, whereas the induced emotions did not. In line with prior research, the current study suggests that the quality of the food delivery service is more important than user emotions in prompting users to want to use the service again and rating the robots more favorably.