With the advent of self-diving cars, robots that could drive on their own were never far behind. Thanks to an innovative Estonian company named Starship Technologies, consumers in Europe might soon witness a robot driving up to their door with their groceries, shopping or food order.
The company has been founded by entrepreneurs Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis. The current project is the result of collaboration between Starship Technologies and a number of delivery companies including Pronto.co.uk in the UK, Just Eat in Europe, and Hermes and the Metro Group in Germany. The company plans to test the self-driving robot simultaneously in the UK, Switzerland and Germany before launching it throughout Europe and the US later on.
The company believes that the self-driving robots will add significant value for consumers beyond the excitement of watching a tiny robot bring them their packages. Packages will be delivered to customers directly. Instead of having a single rider delivering several packages in a day, customers will have their orders delivered to them directly via their own delivery bot. Deliveries will be quicker and more convenient.
The self-driving robots from Starship have been designed as a six-wheel autonomous delivery bot, equipped with radar, GPS and an in-built camera to help it navigate the streets and arrive at its destination safely and on time. Operators at a central office monitor the movements of the delivery bot at all times. To date, Starship has tested the delivery bot over 5,000 miles without any untoward incident. The self-driving robots can drive within a radius of 3 miles.
