Self-driving robots to start delivering packages in the UK, Germany and Switzerland
Citizens of London in the UK, Düsseldorf in Germany, and Bern in Switzerland will soon be able to order packages, groceries and food and have it delivered by a self-driving robot.
Starting in July, it's a test program by robot maker Starship Technologies (co-founded by Skype co-founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis), an Estonian startup who has partnered with several food and package delivery companies to make the program a reality.
Currently the partners include London food delivery startup Pronto.co.uk, European food delivery company Just Eat, German package delivery firm Hermes and German retailer Metro Group.
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Unlike Amazon's proposed drone delivery program, Starship's robots will not be flying. Instead, they're rolling on six wheels, using GPS, radar and camera to find their destination, navigating around obstacles and following traffic rules. They drive autonomously in a 2-3 mile radius, but they are monitored by human operators. Starship claims that in the nearly 5,000 test miles the robots have traversed, there hasn't been a single incident.
Besides getting a few envious (odd?) looks from the neighbors when a robot enters your driveway, what are the benefits for the customer? Mainly, convenience and speed. "Nobody likes to spend hours waiting for the courier just to have a parcel delivered. Therefore, individually scheduled delivery services will become increasingly important within the next years," Frank Rausch, CEO of Hermes Germany, said in a statement.
According to Starship, the testing will move to other European cities soon, followed by a test launch in the U.S.
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Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.
