TOKYO: Japan's 7-Eleven began trialling autonomous delivery robots in a Tokyo suburb for the first time on May 19 to test their viability in the rapidly ageing country.
The country faces growing labour shortages and changed its traffic laws in 2023 to allow delivery robots on public streets. Other companies, including Panasonic, have also tested new machines to transport goods.
The pilot project by 7-Eleven involves a wheeled, cart-shaped robot co-developed by leading automaker Suzuki and Tokyo-based start-up Lomby and covered around 10,000 households in western Tokyo.
The convenience store giant has trialled similar robots remotely manoeuvered by humans but this was the first trial of self-driving machines on public pavements.
Orders placed on a smartphone app activate the robot, sending it gliding unmanned towards the specified home address at six kilometres per hour (four mph).
The robots can recognise traffic signals and other signs on public roads, although they are monitored remotely by human operators who can intervene in the event of an emergency.
"If, for example, the robot is surrounded by people and finds itself at a loss, the operator can ask them through a microphone to please let it come through," a spokesperson for parent company Seven & i Holding told AFP.
The trial is slated to run until February and the machines are meant to help sustain 7-Eleven's existing delivery service that relies on human drivers.
"In five years' time when the labour shortage can further deepen, there is no guarantee that human deliveries will remain viable till then," the spokesperson said.
"We have to be prepared."
The neighbourhood chosen for the trial, Minami-Osawa in Tokyo, sits on a hill with many slopes and stairs, difficult topography for many of its ageing residents.
The trial will assess whether autonomous delivery robots can be a shopping solution for such areas, the firm said in a statement.
Publications including Business Insider have reported that a similar trial was conducted by 7-Eleven in Los Angeles in 2023. – AFP
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