This self-driving robot can take the grocery-shopping burden off your shoulders and deliver your goods to your doorstep. Starship Technologies has already launched the intelligent robot and delivery trials have started in Greenwich, London.
Starship Technologies was founded by the same people who founder Skype. Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis plans to reshape local deliveries and also lend a hand in zero-emission deliveries worldwide.
This self-driving robot was first introduced in November 2015. After talks with the Greenwich local government, the first trial run of the intelligent robot debuted on March 10, 2016. Greenwich is a supporter of zero-emission transportation as well as autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles, which makes it a great place to start.
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Denise Hyland, the Leader of the Royal Borough of Greenwich looks forward to the trial. In the press release, she said:
“This technology has the potential to transform the local delivery of goods and groceries. The trial complements the work being undertaken by the Royal Borough of Greenwich on smart city innovation – work that we believe will be significant for all cities in the future.”
Apart from the fact that this self-driving robot is environment-friendly, there’s still more to it than meets the eye. For one, the intelligent robot has six wheels that allow it to deliver the goods within 30 minutes or less. The robot uses the pedestrian pavements and travels at slow speed. However, its ability to maneuver the streets safely and strategically (detecting people, stopping at roads, adjusting speed, stopping at obstacles) lets it deliver the goods on time.
Shoppers pay less than £1 per shipment and the self-driving robot can deliver within a 3 mile radius. By doing so, it lessens the cost of local delivery by five to ten times.
Moreover, there’s no need to worry if the robot will get lost on its way to your doorstep. It is actually human-controlled. The robot is equipped with nine cameras and GPS technology, which makes it harder to steal.
According to Heinla, there was a lot of work put into making this robot and he’s glad that the British public likes it.
“The robot has been in development for almost two years, and we’ve experienced unprecedented levels of interest and goodwill – so it’s great to now be taking the first step to rolling our little robot out for real. The robot has been very well-received by pedestrians in all of the interactions we’ve seen so far, so it’s very exciting to be officially introducing the robot to the British public.”
Starship Technologies already has plans of launching a similar trial run in U.S. soil by April and hopefully, this self-driving robot will get its first pilot service later this year servicing the other places in the U.K.
This article was written by Azalea Pena from PSFK and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
