A major commercial rollout of autonomous delivery services for corporate and academic campuses across the U.S. and Europe is taking place together with continued growth in robotic food, grocery and parcel delivery in residential neighbourhoods.
Starship’s initiative is the first large-scale deployment of autonomous delivery services, supporting campuses by implementing robots to assist in work and school environments. The robots offer on-demand delivery anywhere on participating campuses via an app, offering employees the flexibility and convenience of having food delivery when and where they want, eliminating unwanted errands and waiting in line, or transporting items to and from other locations on campus.
“We’ve already partnered with Compass Group on the Intuit Mountain View campus in the U.S. to provide accessible, convenient and sustainable robotic delivery,” said CEO, Ahti Heinla, Starship Technologies, “and after a successful start to the year and great reception to our robots, we are planning to dramatically expand our services and distribute thousands of robots across campuses around the world by 2019.”
The campus launch represents a major milestone in the growth of Starship Technologies, expanding on commercial delivery pilot programs in the US, UK, Germany, Switzerland and Estonia. Robots developed by Starship Technologies have now covered over 100,000 miles around the world in 20 countries and over 100 cities, encountering over 15 million people along the way. Starship robots on campuses aim to increase efficiency and let employees make the most out of work environments that now often include recreational amenities to support and encourage a better work-life balance.
On Intuit’s Mountain View campus, workers can order food and drink via the Starship app for delivery throughout the day across all 4.3 acres of the Intuit campus. On average, a Starship robot takes 17 minutes to deliver food, coffee or snacks on the campus, giving people more time to be productive or enjoy their breaks around their campus, instead of standing in line.
The robots can deliver all manner of items from food and office stationery to auto-parts in large Campus environments. To date, the most common Starship delivery item at Intuit has been breakfast sandwiches.
Starship Technologies is building a fleet of these robots designed to deliver goods locally in 15-60 minutes. They drive autonomously but are monitored by humans who can take over control at any time. Launched in July 2014, by two Skype co-founders, Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis, Starship is changing the way packages, groceries and food are delivered.
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