More news of the 'machines taking over' here: in the not too distant future, people living in London, Düsseldorf in Germany, and Bern in Switzerland, will be able to order general groceries and food to be delivered to their houses... by a self-driving robot.
Estonian robot maker Starship Technologies has launched a test program with several food and delivery companies. Some of whom include London delivery startup Pronto.co.uk, and European delivery company Just Eat.
While the robots won't be flying like Amazon's drone program, they will be rolling deep around the streets on six wheels, using cameras and DPS to locate their destination.
The robots will drive in auto mode in a 2-3 radius, but are always looked over by human operators. Not sure what I just wrote about the radius just then to be honest.
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Customer benefits include convenience and speed. CEO of Hermes, Frank Rausch, said: "Nobody likes to spend hours waiting for the courier just to have a parcel delivered. Therefore, individually scheduled delivery services will become increasingly important within the next years."
Testing is planned to spread onto other European cities and America.
I have reached out to some of the robots to see how they feel about Brexit and whether it affects their freedom of movement. Not heard anything yet.
Words by Josh Teal
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