Your Pokémon Go data is set to help train robots.

When Pokémon Go launched in 2016, it quickly became a cultural phenomenon. From London to New York, it seemed like everyone was out on the streets, engrossed in Niantic’s augmented reality mobile game, eager to catch them all. Although Niantic no longer owns Pokémon Go—having sold it to Scopely in March 2025—the data gathered during its peak is now being repurposed to train robots.

This development comes from Niantic Spatial’s announcement of a partnership with Coco Robotics, which has created an urban robot designed for food delivery in bustling city environments. Through this collaboration, Coco Robotics will utilize Niantic’s knowledge in “spatial AI and its Visual Positioning System (VPS)” to enhance its delivery robot, Coco. This fleet consists of around 1,000 compact robots capable of transporting up to eight extra-large pizzas or four grocery bags, currently operating in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Jersey City, Miami, and Helsinki. One of the main hurdles Coco faces is the unreliable GPS signals in urban areas where tall buildings disrupt radio waves.

“The potential for last-mile robotics is huge, but navigating the chaos of city streets presents one of the toughest engineering challenges,” stated John Hanke, CEO of Niantic Spatial, an AI division established by Niantic in May 2025. “We are excited to partner with Coco Robotics as our first robotics collaborator, applying spatial intelligence to tackle these issues directly.” Hanke also noted that “Interestingly, the challenge of getting Pikachu to move realistically is quite similar to ensuring Coco’s robot can navigate safely and accurately through the environment.”

The data amassed from players of Pokémon Go and its predecessor, Ingress, is now being utilized to create a precise model of the urban landscapes that Coco’s robots must traverse. With Niantic’s VPS technology, Pokémon Go can pinpoint a player’s location based on their surroundings instead of relying solely on GPS. By encouraging players to use their phones from various angles, Niantic was able to map real-world locations and landmarks, allowing players to gather essential data for improved accuracy under different conditions, including height, angle, and weather.

In 2020, Pokémon Go introduced a feature called “Field Research,” rewarding players for taking photos and scanning their environments in exchange for items and rare Pokémon. Whether players were aware of the broader implications or not, they contributed to a dataset that Niantic has since leveraged to train fast-food delivery robots.

While Niantic has always been transparent about its data collection practices, it’s likely that some Pokémon fans may feel uneasy about their data being used by an AI company for robot training. Let’s hope the Coco fleet navigates better than Leon from the Pokémon series.