Starship Technologies, a company launched by the former co-founders of Skype, started trials of its self-driving delivery robots in Greenwich, London. The company plans to expand their service into other cities throughout the U.K. and eventually into the U.S. via New York City in April of 2016.
The six wheeled, intelligent, and kinda cute robot is designed for local delivery of goods and groceries for consumers for under £1 per shipment. Much better than Amazon's $300 a year membership for their Fresh service. The robots use the sidewalk, just like pedestrians, traveling at a top speed of 4 miles per hour. The bots have a locked compartment for the goods you've ordered and won't unlock until you respond to a notification on your smart phone.
Ahti Heinla, Starship's CEO described the robots as, "a totally new class of devices that will provide a combination of low cost and convenience with less congested streets and zero emissions. The robot has been very well-received by pedestrians in all of the interactions we’ve seen so far.” Denise Hyland, Leader of the Royal Borough of Greenwich said, “this technology has the potential to transform the local delivery of goods and groceries.”
Watch out pizza delivery drivers. Your jobs are on the line.
This is how the robots infiltrate our lives, with cute bots that scurry around our cities, bringing how the groceries safely and efficiently. Next, they'll be vacuuming the floors and mowing the lawns.
Wait...what...they already do that?
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