Pretty soon you might be able to order delivery from a semi-autonomous robot. Starship Technologies just recently announced their partnerships with DoorDash and Postmates, for moving forward with launching their self-driving robot delivery machines in the United States. The robots will be doing deliveries in Redwood City, California and Washington, D.C.
They are expected to start doing deliveries within just a few weeks time.
The robots look like a mobile cooler and they are able to travel up to a speed of 4 miles an hour. They'll most likely be traveling down sidewalks, unless the company receives permission from the state to operate on the streets. The robots will be able to carry packages that are about 40 lbs, they're re powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, and they can deliver within a 2 mile radius.
DoorDash is an on-demand food delivery service that just last year was estimated to be worth about $600 million, and Postmates is a logistics company that operates like a courier marketplace and they've already managed to raise hundreds of millions in funding.
For Redwood City, California, the robots are going to be delivering in the downtown business district. And as for Washington, the robots will be serving the northwestern portion of D.C. Those who have the DoorDash and Postmates app on their phone will soon see the robot delivery option on the app and the cost for delivery from these robots won't be any more than it would for a normal delivery charge.
Starship Technologies robots have already been busy at work in many other countries around the world.
In the fall of last year, they had already come into contact with at least 1.7 million people, operating in over a dozen different countries. They've collectively traveled thousands of miles, traveling through at least 56 different cities. And now they are coming to the U.S.
DoorDash says that although they are testing the robots, they don't plan on replacing their human workers anytime in the near future. As of right now they have human drivers who travel in a myriad of different ways for DoorDash, some bike or drive, others use scooters, motorcycles, or even walk. Different delivery tasks might call for a different method in travel and these robots will serve to give DoorDash one more option in how they go about getting the product to the client in an efficient manner.
Pics:
techcrunch
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Sources:
https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/18/postmates-and-doordash-are-testing-delivery-by-robot-with-starship-technologies/
https://qz.com/887944/starship-robots-are-testing-deliveries-for-doordash-and-postmates-in-california-and-washington-dc/
