Greenwich, London residents have officially begun receiving deliveries from autonomous, six-wheeled rolling cooler bots, which are handling the “last mile” of food delivery from nearby takeout restaurants. According the Daily Mail the company Just Eat has made the first delivery of takeaway using a robot. A woman in South East London received her Turkish with a twist after opening the door to find a six wheeled robot delivering her online food order. The firm claims it is the world’s first online food delivery using a robot, with a customer making a live order through its app.
Customers who order takeaway food using Just Eat could soon find their food being delivered by robots following the launch of a ground-breaking trial. The company, the world’s leading digital marketplace for takeaway food delivery, has partnered with Starship Technologies (a company that makes delivery robots) to trial self-driving delivery robots on the streets of London from early 2016.
According Starship, the scheme costs between 10 to 15 times less than the cost of current last-mile delivery alternatives.
You can watch the video from Robotic Trends below.
Earlier this year, in November, Domino’s Pizza delivered pizzas by drone in New Zealand, while it has been reported that Alphabet Inc. and Chipotle have already tested to bring airborne burritos to the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. In a rapid evolution of the relevant technologies and regulations, rolling robots are already making U.S. house calls and deliver grocery products, beginning with a trial run in Washington, D.C. this fall.
I bet that the same robots would be very easily used to implement fully automated and much cheaper door to door collection recycling programs. Fasten your seatbelt…
Dear Antonis, thank you for sharing. As logistician and innovator, I watch the development for some years and I think it is positive, but same as with air-drones, just part of the full supply chain is being discussed leaving important part away. For air-drones, it is the landing platforms on delivery places, for ground-drones, it is the possibility to utilize them on the way back in MILKRUN systems. Would be happy to join some development team.