Oct 23 (Reuters) - Grubhub is expanding its partnership

with self-driving technology startup Avride to pilot robot food

deliveries in Jersey City, New Jersey, the companies said on

Thursday.

Users in the city can place orders through the Grubhub app,

operated by Wonder Group, and choose Avride robot delivery if

within range.

Customers can order from Wonder's Jersey City location,

which houses more than 20 different restaurant concepts and

allows users to combine dishes from multiple restaurants into a

single order.

Food delivery apps have been implementing pilot programs for

robot deliveries to reduce labor costs, speed up services and

improve reliability of the process.

Uber Eats and DoorDash partnered with Serve Robotics ( SERV )

earlier this year to roll out delivery robots in U.S.,

while Avride tied up with Uber ( UBER ) last year for food deliveries and

robotaxis.

Under the partnership, Avride's AI-based self-driving robots

will be tested for navigating populated cities and diverse

weather conditions. Following the pilot, Grubhub plans to expand

robot deliveries to more U.S. markets.

Avride and Grubhub first partnered in January to roll out

food delivery robots on college campuses across the United

States, with a fleet of 120 robots at Ohio State University.

On Wednesday, Avride said it had secured financing of up to

$375 million, backed by Uber Technologies ( UBER ), and the

Nebius Group ( NBIS ).