These are autonomous robots that deliver home – Strategy & Business

By Bloomberg

The next time you ask for food using application delivery Just Eat in London, do not be surprised if it brings it to your door a small robot six wheels.

Just Eat, listed on the London stock exchange, will join the German retailer Metro AG, the logistics company Hermes group and British startup meal delivery Soon Technology in the group companies that make deliveries tests with robots handled alone.

Starship Technologies, the manufacturer of androids, said Wednesday that Just Eat and soon use robots in London, while Metro and Hermes will do in Dusseldorf, Germany, and Bern, Switzerland, as in another German city undisclosed.

The robot Starship Technologies
Created by two co-founders of Skype, Starship, whose headquarters are in London and its research and development office engineering in Tallinn, Estonia, the company was testing their robots in 12 countries last nine months. it will be the the first time that companies use technology to deliver orders truth to paying customers.

Allan Martinson, the maximum reponsable operations Starship, said in a telephone interview that tests each company will comprise a fleet of between five and ten robots in one or two areas of each city.

He also said that Starship probably announce more customers, including some in the United States, in a matter of months.

small robots designed to operate on sidewalks rather than on the streets, make deliveries within 3.2 to 4.8 kilometers. They can carry loads up to 9.07 kilos at a maximum speed of 6.4 kilometers per hour.

Starship operate in the name of the first customers and monitor their progress remotely, ready to manage them remotely if they encounter situations that can not manage autonomous driving mode. During the tests, the robots were crossed with more than 400,000 people without suffering a single accident, the company said.

the robot Starship in Washington DC

Ahti Heinla, co-founder, CEO and chief technology Starship, said in a statement that these pilot programs with customers constituted ” the next step “in the development of the company’s deliveries robotized.” Now acquire the knowledge to direct real services robotized delivery, “he said.

” we are always looking for ways to use technology to make life easier for customers “said David Buttress, the head of Just Eat in a statement.

” Starship is at the forefront of innovation in the field of deliveries therefore, it is natural that we partner with them to bring robots delivered to the main streets of our cities. “