Your fish ‘n chips, guv’nah
The European food delivery company Just Eat has teamed up with Starship technologies, who already have had some success in delivery robots, to bring food delivery into the ultra-modern era.
Similar to Amazon’s announcement that drone package delivery is imminent, these cooler-shaped delivery robots have already been tested with success.
From the team that brought you Skype
Details are still vague, but the self-driving robots boast 9 cameras, sensors with a 360-degree field of vision, and a 30cm braking distance. They are going to start small, with a delivery area of about a mile and plans to expand from there. Human operators will oversee the adorable six-wheeled trunks as they find their hungry human who will enter a secure code in order to open the box and retrieve their food.
Just Eat is an established food-delivery service similar to Grub Hub or Uber Eats. Their app-based order system has plans to expand to the new Apple TV format to offer even more food-ordering options.
Starship technologies was formed by former co-founders of Skype, and has already been testing robot delivery for integration with several companies, but Just Eat is one of the first to announce a partnership and roll-out plans.
Delivery begins in the next month
“As soon as we met the Starship team, we found their passion for their product infectious,” said CEO David Buttress. “With scalable innovation at the core of their business, they are the perfect partner for us at Just Eat as we continuously look for sustainable ways to use technology to make our customers’ and restaurant partners’ lives easier. We can’t wait to bring the delivery robots to local high streets very soon.”
Although mini robots carrying delicious food might seem like an easy target for hungry or mischievous citizens, the company said there have been no incidents of attempted vandalism or theft during testing, and says the close tracking and many sensors should detour any funny business.
Delivery is expected to start within the next 30 days. Hopefully robot delivery will assuage my personal fears of being judged by the pizza guy for my creative pajama choices.
#DeliveryRobots
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