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Popular delivery apps Postmates and DoorDash have announced a partnership with automated robot startup Starship Technologies, which will see a fleet of self-driving robots make courier deliveries for Postmates in Washington D.C., and food deliveries for DoorDash in Redwood City, California (via TechCrunch).

The robots built by Starship are designed to travel among people walking on the sidewalk and can achieve a max speed of 4 mph while carrying up to 40 lbs, all within a delivery radius of 2 miles. The personal couriers are powered by rechargeable lithium ion batteries to ensure that they are quiet when running. Although "they primarily rely on computer vision and street map data to navigate," the robots aren't entirely self-operating as they require a human overseer to manage the fleet through an app.

starship-robots.jpg
Images via @StarshipRobots


Postmates and DoorDash aren't the first clients of Starship, with overseas companies like Just Eat, Hermes Parcel Delivery, Media Markt, Swiss Post and Wolt previously supporting the robotic fleet of personal couriers. In total, Starship says at least 1.7 million people in 16 countries and 56 cities have been in contact with one of its robots.

DoorDash co-founder Stanley Tang made sure to state that the addition of Starship's technology doesn't mean the company is seeking to completely replace its human workers. Instead, Tang has a vision to use the robots as a way for its human workers to avoid small deliveries, and subsequently small tips, because the app tips workers based on the total cost of the order they deliver. His ultimate goal is to "use robots to alleviate "dashers" of the deliveries they don't want to do anyway."
According to DoorDash co-founder Stanley Tang, testing out robotic "dashers," doesn't mean the company will attempt to replace human workers any time soon, or ever. He said, "We have people who use cars, bikes, scooters, motorcycles or walk to make a delivery. And each has a different strength and suitability for different deliveries. Robots will be another type of vehicle in our system."
With DoorDash, Starship is expected to be integrated into the app from as early as the ordering stage: users will have to choose to have their order delivered by a robot instead of a human, and then they will receive a text message when the courier arrives at the door. Thanks to Starship's security measures, the robot's compartment will be calibrated to be opened through a link in the text message that the user receives, so no one else can take their food order.

starship-robots-2.jpg

Postmates is said to be preparing a similar system as DoorDash, with Senior Vice President Holger Luedorf saying, "we don't have a grand vision that robots would be the ultimate delivery mechanism or something. It's far too early to say. We do want to gather a lot of data."

Automation in technology has been surging as a popular topic in recent years, from Amazon's successful first drone delivery with Prime Air last month to Apple's confirmation of its interest in a self-driving vehicle system. Companies like Uber and Google have expressed interest in self-driving cars as well, but recently began scaling back their ambitions due to trouble with automotive legislation.

Article Link: iOS Apps Postmates and DoorDash Testing Automated Delivery Via Self-Driving Robots
 

x-evil-x

macrumors 603
Jul 13, 2008
5,576
3,234
Sweet I love getting cold food. Postmates and food services are already bad if you live in an apartment where the driver gets lost 80% of the time and your food arrives cold
 
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macduke

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,100
19,598
So what is to prevent these from being stolen? GPS signal is pretty easy to block. Hopefully they have an alarm system to detect if they're picked up or something. I have to admit though—the idea of little droids going about their task really makes me think of Star Wars, and that makes me happy.
 

ThunderSkunk

macrumors 68040
Dec 31, 2007
3,774
3,975
Milwaukee Area
The proliferation of these in cities will be interesting to watch. The Major delivery services have bomb-sniffing & detection equipment all packages pass through. But it'll be impossible to tell which of a multitude of these little guys running up and down the sidewalks all day long is carrying an extra-spicy payload.
 

WRChris

macrumors 6502a
Aug 17, 2016
680
949
Indiana



Popular delivery apps Postmates and DoorDash have announced a partnership with automated robot startup Starship Technologies, which will see a fleet of self-driving robots make courier deliveries for Postmates in Washington D.C., and food deliveries for DoorDash in Redwood City, California (via TechCrunch).

The robots built by Starship are designed to travel among people walking on the sidewalk and can achieve a max speed of 4 mph while carrying up to 40 lbs, all within a delivery radius of 2 miles. The personal couriers are powered by rechargeable lithium ion batteries to ensure that they are quiet when running. Although "they primarily rely on computer vision and street map data to navigate," the robots aren't entirely self-operating as they require a human overseer to manage the fleet through an app.

starship-robots.jpg

Images via @StarshipRobots


Postmates and DoorDash aren't the first clients of Starship, with overseas companies like Just Eat, Hermes Parcel Delivery, Media Markt, Swiss Post and Wolt previously supporting the robotic fleet of personal couriers. In total, Starship says at least 1.7 million people in 16 countries and 56 cities have been in contact with one of its robots.

DoorDash co-founder Stanley Tang made sure to state that the addition of Starship's technology doesn't mean the company is seeking to completely replace its human workers. Instead, Tang has a vision to use the robots as a way for its human workers to avoid small deliveries, and subsequently small tips, because the app tips workers based on the total cost of the order they deliver. His ultimate goal is to "use robots to alleviate "dashers" of the deliveries they don't want to do anyway."
With DoorDash, Starship is expected to be integrated into the app from as early as the ordering stage: users will have to choose to have their order delivered by a robot instead of a human, and then they will receive a text message when the courier arrives at the door. Thanks to Starship's security measures, the robot's compartment will be calibrated to be opened through a link in the text message that the user receives, so no one else can take their food order.

starship-robots-2.jpg

Postmates is said to be preparing a similar system as DoorDash, with Senior Vice President Holger Luedorf saying, "we don't have a grand vision that robots would be the ultimate delivery mechanism or something. It's far too early to say. We do want to gather a lot of data."

Automation in technology has been surging as a popular topic in recent years, from Amazon's successful first drone delivery with Prime Air last month to Apple's confirmation of its interest in a self-driving vehicle system. Companies like Uber and Google have expressed interest in self-driving cars as well, but recently began scaling back their ambitions due to trouble with automotive legislation.

Article Link: iOS Apps Postmates and DoorDash Testing Automated Delivery Via Self-Driving Robots
Only commenting to say the dog is beautiful. Looks just like one of mine
 

DeepIn2U

macrumors G5
May 30, 2002
12,821
6,875
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Those look ridiculously easy to steal.

LOL, agreed. not much worth within BUT it would surely cost the company a LOT more than an employee: robot insurance spike if a numerous amount is stolen. Implementing tracking and camera's would also increase per unit cost.

Sweet I love getting cold food. Postmates and food services are already bad if you live in an apartment where the driver gets lost 80% of the time and your food arrives cold

Yeah I get teh same raw deal with Taxi delivery here in Toronto. 3 buildings, only 3 on my street right next to one another and the drivers cannot figure out which address belongs to which at the side of the road. Moreover they don't bother reading the building number painted on the main front building entrance door with 75 Size font. lol.

One step closer to a massive layoff of delivery workers.

Based on the potentials and caveats above I think this would only serve to bolster employment and sustainability of delivery workers.
 
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x-evil-x

macrumors 603
Jul 13, 2008
5,576
3,234
LOL, agreed. not much worth within BUT it would surely cost the company a LOT more than an employee: robot insurance spike if a numerous amount is stolen. Implementing tracking and camera's would also increase per unit cost.



Yeah I get teh same raw deal with Taxi delivery here in Toronto. 3 buildings, only 3 on my street right next to one another and the drivers cannot figure out which address belongs to which at the side of the road. Moreover they don't bother reading the building number painted on the main front building entrance door with 75 Size font. lol.



Based on the potentials and caveats above I think this would only serve to bolster employment and sustainability of delivery workers.
I just blame it on new drivers that don't understand directions or how things work. When i worked for directv i never had issues getting in closed gates with the help of the person. They should hire people with prior driving background that are used to situations like that.
 

iKen1

macrumors member
Oct 16, 2012
81
34
So what happens if you are not in when the delivery arrives? Is it going to wait for you to get back? I can't see it doing delivery to a 'safe place' or trying the neighbours.
 
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