The days of the pizza delivery boy may be numbered thanks to the arrival of an army of robot food carriers.
Fast food app provider Just Eat, in partnership with Starship Technologies, is planning to roll out the robots as a trial in the UK and some parts of Europe after successful deployment overseas where the robots were tested over a total of 5,000 miles and reached their destinations without fault. The robots will be capable of delivering hot food within a three mile radius.
The autonomous robots will be equipped with cameras on all sides, so they are completely aware of their surroundings and they will be interactive with humans. Customers will have a unique access code to unlock their order from the droids carrier body.
Unlike the rebellious Russian robot Promobot IR77, a learning droid that has escaped its lab on two occasions, the AI on these fast food delivery bots can be overridden so they can be controlled remotely by humans if for any reason they might go off course from their drop locations. This also helps prevent the threat of them being hacked however none of the robots have yet been interfered with.
As well as Just Eat, Starship Technologies has signed deals with delivery firms Hermes, Metro Group and Pronto and the company states: “By launching partnerships with major companies we will enter the next phase in our development. While Starship has been testing the robots in 12 countries in the last nine months, we will now develop know-how on running real robotic delivery services.”
With delivery robots soon to hit the road and Amazon already employing delivery drones for airborne parcel drops intelligent droids have yet another job. We expect them to soon be starting a union and demanding a pay rise!