Starship Technologies to Launch Thousands of Autonomous Food Delivery Robots Across Colleges
Starship Technologies is expanding its fleet of autonomous food delivery robots, and they’ll be roaming college campuses soon.
Gone are the days of ordering online and waiting for a person to deliver your pizza to your door. With Starship Technologies’ robots, everything will now be automated from the moment you place the order, until the food is safe, in your hands.
The company raised $40 million for its project, and after announcing the funding’s success on Tuesday, it is already working on setting its six-wheeled robots out to the American college world.
What is the plan of action for the launch?
The San Francisco-based startup’s robots have already been tested in over 100 cities across 20 different countries, have run 350,000 miles, driven down 4 million streets, and just recently completed their 100,000th delivery.
These numbers will grow exponentially with their planned launch of delivering to100 different colleges across the U.S.
The company has already started the process, and robots have been delivering food at George Mason University and the University of Northern Arizona. Next up will be the University of Pittsburgh in September, as well as Purdue University in Indiana.
The plan is to deploy 25 robots on each campus over the next 24 months. They’re looking at over 5,000 robots moving around these universities by 2021.
How do these robots operate?
Each robot is electric and can carry up to 20 pounds‘ worth of goods. They’re donned with cameras that help them navigate around obstacles, guiding the robots to their final destination.
The delivery zone is of three or four miles, and the top speed it rolls at is four mph. A tad slower than a human on a bike or in a car, we’ll admit.
Different from humans who need more rest, these robots will be able to keep going, without much of a break aside from charging up their batteries.
Able to go up curved hills, but unable to climb stairs, there are some limitations to the robots’ abilities.
For the time being, though, the company is focusing on lower heights and less dense areas.
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