Pokemon GO Studio Niantic using data to train delivery bots

Pokemon Go the creator, Niantic, revealed in March 2026 that it was working with other companies to train delivery bots using data captured by players. The ground-breaking 2016 mobile game, where players venture into the real world to capture Pokémon lurking nearby, has seen more than 1 billion downloads over the years. A lot of people use it Pokemon Go in&» in place.

No longer owned or run by Niantic, now known as Niantic Spatial Pokemon Go. The hit mobile game was part of Scopely's $3.5 billion sale in early 2025. Pokemon Go and Niantic's entire library of mobile games back then excited some people and pissed off others. The future of the title remained up in the air, with fans worried about the uncertainty.

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Pokemon Go Creator Niantic Uses Player Data To Train Pizza Delivery Robots

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On March 10, 2026, Niantic Spatial announced that the original creator and runner Pokemon Go has partnered with a robotics startup called Coco Robotics to use player-collected data to help train delivery robots. Coco Robotics has a fleet of about 1,000 suitcase-sized robots designed to carry and deliver pizzas in busy urban environments. Common forms of travel data such as GPS alone do not work well for robots in cities.

The partnership with Niantic Spatial is designed to use millions of photo scans of real streets, landmarks and buildings captured Pokemon Go players create a model that the robot's “brain” will refer to as it travels to help navigate. A combination of GPS data and world maps created photo scans from players are meant to help bots navigate more effectively without getting lost. A game as popular as Pokemon Go provided the AI model used by the bots with more than 30 billion images to train. What makes Niantic images so useful is their gameplay he took players to the same hot spots in their cities, where they all took pictures of the same places, but from different angles with different lighting and weather conditions.

Robots are already making their way into the gaming industry, and with each passing year it becomes more apparent that robots are likely to play a role in the world moving forward. A video game company using data collected from players to help train pizza delivery robots was more than likely not what anyone expected. Use a Pokemon a mobile game that helps train robots showcases the creative solutions engineers are coming up with 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 hasn't secretly intercepted players' phone data over the years. All the data used was deliberately captured Pokemon Go was actively played. It will be interesting to see if there are other innovative ways to use the unique data obtained from them Pokemon Go in the future.