Bolt is using Starship Technologies robots to deliver meals and groceries in Estonia. — AFP Relaxnews
These small vehicles are powered by artificial intelligence and are designed to deliver your groceries or take-out. And while trials of autonomous delivery robots have proliferated in the United States in recent years, they are now gathering pace in Europe too.
Imagine the scene. It’s Saturday evening, time for the final preparations before your guests arrive, when suddenly you realise that you’re not only missing eggs but that you’ve forgotten to get fruit juices for the kids, not to mention their favourite potato chips. With a few taps on your smartphone, you could order the missing items in no time and have them delivered, not by a courier, but by an autonomous robot!
This sci-fi-worthy scenario is likely to become reality in the near future. Already at the time of the pandemic – in a context where contactless delivery was favoured – these small self-driving robots equipped with sensors and cameras, capable of taking to the roads (or to the sidewalks) without human intervention, were spotted in a few British cities where they had been working for several years.
The technology was launched in 2014 by Skype co-founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis. Headquartered in San Francisco, but with development offices in Estonia, Finland and the UK, Starship Technologies now boasts over four million autonomous deliveries, and Europeans are about to start enjoying the benefits.
This is because the company has entered into a partnership with urban mobility provider Bolt. Known for its ride-hailing and micromobility solutions, the company has expanded into the grocery and meal delivery sector with Bolt Food – a way for the company, now present in 45 countries and 500 cities worldwide, to diversify its activities in a context where there are many competitors in urban mobility.
While the meal delivery sector in Europe is largely dominated by Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat, the startup could well gain a competitive edge by offering perfectly autonomous delivery. Indeed, Bolt has announced the launch of grocery and meal delivery using these intelligent little vehicles. A pilot program has been deployed in Tallinn, the Estonian capital.
However, Bolt is not the only company using autonomous delivery. Earlier this year, the retail giant Carrefour began testing grocery delivery in Brussels using small self-driving robots from the British company Delivers.Ai. The retailer boasted of being the first in Europe to test this particular device, which could be rolled out more widely if feedback is positive.
In the United States, students on university campuses are already familiar with Cartken robots, which deliver take-out ordered on Grubhub. The Californian company has also sealed a partnership with Uber Eats to satisfy the appetites of Miami residents. Meanwhile, the meal-delivery giant serves its Los Angeles customers with autonomous robots from Serve Robotics.
Amazon was already working in the field in 2019 with its little Scout robot, which had begun scouring American cities before the firm abruptly halted its experiments.
“During our Scout limited field test, we worked to create a unique delivery experience, but learned through feedback that there were aspects of the program that weren’t meeting customers’ needs,” a spokesperson for the online retailer told The Verge in 2022. – AFP Relaxnews
