A tiny robot that drives on the sidewalk could deliver your next Postmates order

Forget drones. The latest delivery craze is on-the-ground robots — like the ones that will deliver your next order from Postmates.

Robots from Starship Technologies will deliver food to Postmates customers in Washington, D.C. and DoorDash customers in Redwood City, Calif. as part of a new pilot program announced Wednesday.

The robots — small, "droid-style" robots that roll along on the sidewalk — will be used by the delivery apps mainly to fulfill smaller, local orders. Starship Technologies is focused on building robots for 15- to 30-minute local delivery in a two-to-three mile radius. The robots drive autonomously but are monitored by humans.

The on-the-ground robot delivery systems will face less regulatory oversight than Amazon's ambitious drone deliveries, for example.

D.C.'s city council passed the Personal Delivery Device Act last June, with some lobbying from Starship. The law allows small on-the-ground delivery devices, like Starship's, to operate throughout most of D.C. The city can't allow drone deliveries because of a federal no-fly zone.

Starship tested its delivery robots in D.C., Redwood City and Fayetteville, Ark. in late 2016.

"While some companies have pursued autonomous technologies by flouting local laws, Starship has already received approval to test their robots," DoorDash Chief Product Officer Stanley Tang said.

The delivery companies are interested to see how customers react when a robot shows up instead of a human.

“We’re very excited about robotics and how we can better utilize the technology to enhance our already strong delivery fleet,” Postmates' Senior Vice President for Business Holger Luedorf said in a statement. “We know there is still a long way to go, but we’re excited to team up with Starship on this pilot program and see how the robots are received by our customers and merchant partners.”

Tang said that DoorDash expects the robots to fill in for the orders human workers avoid picking up because they're too small or too close and won't lead to as much of a tip. DoorDash also plans to use robots to deliver from restaurants to a central hub where deliverers could pick up food and take it the rest of the way to a customer.

The delivery robots work for more than just food. Starship, which is headquartered in London and runs its engineering out of Estonia, has already launched similar partnerships with Europe's Just Eat as well as Hermes Parcel Delivery, consumer electronics retailer Media Markt, Swiss Post and the Finnish food delivery startup Wolt.

The robotics company just raised $17.2 million in seed funding this month.

“DoorDash and Postmates are championing on-demand local delivery, sharing Starship’s vision to save customers time and money,” Starship Technologies CEO Ahti Heinla said in a statement.