Pokemon Go The manufacturer, Niantic, revealed in March 2026 that it was working with other companies to train delivery robots using data captured by players. The smash-hit mobile game from 2016 where players go into the real world to capture Pokemon hidden near them, has received over 1 billion downloads over the years. That's what many people use Pokemon Go to capture images from around the world, and it looks like Niantic has found a use for those images.
Niantic, now known as Niantic Spatial, no longer owns or operates Pokemon Go. The hit mobile game was part of a $3.5 billion sale to Scopely in early 2025. sale of Pokemon Go And Niantic's entire mobile game library excited some people and saddened others at the time. The future of the title was left up in the air, and fans were worried about the uncertainty.
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Pokemon Go creator Niantic uses player data to train pizza delivery robots
On March 10, 2026, Niantic Spatial announced that the original creator and runner Pokemon Go A robotics startup teamed up with a company called Coco Robotics to help train robots to use player-collected data. Coco Robotics has a fleet of around 1000 suitcase-sized robots, designed to carry and deliver pizzas in busy city environments. Common forms of travel data, such as GPS, do not work well by themselves for robots in cities.
The partnership with Niantic Spatial aims to use millions of photo scans captured by real-world roads, landmarks, and buildings. Pokemon Go To model the robot's “brain” as it travels to help players navigate themselves. Built by combining GPS data and world maps Photoscans from players are meant to help robots navigate more efficiently without getting lost. Like the popular game Pokemon Go The robot is fed more than 30 billion images to train the AI model it uses. What makes Niantic's images so useful is their gameplay Players were funneled to the same hot spots in their cities, where they all took pictures of the same place, but from different angles with different lighting and weather conditions.
Robots are already making their way into the gaming industry, and it becomes more apparent with each passing year that robots will likely play a role in the world moving forward. A video game company using data collected from players to train pizza delivery robots did not go as well as anyone expected. The use of A Pokemon The mobile game for training robots showcases engineers' creative solutions to advance AI and robotics.
In a world where players are constantly concerned about their privacy and data usage, it's worth noting that Niantic has not secretly captured data from players' phones for years. All data was intentionally captured during use Pokemon Go was actively playing. It will be interesting to see if there are other innovative ways to use the unique data gathered Pokemon Go in the future.
- issued
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July 6, 2016
- Engine
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unity
- Multiplayer
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Online multiplayer, online co-op
