Technology is getting more and more advanced, and our life gets easier with every new innovation.
Now, in times of pizza delivery, skype meetings, online shopping and even grocery deliveries, who really needs to step outside anymore?!

Well now, this has been taken a step further - now even the delivery guy doesn't need to step outside anymore. We're always being told that robots will take over many of our jobs in the future - and it's already started.

How, you ask?

With autonomous, self-driving delivery robots.

Yes, that's a thing, and they're actually already being used!

It all started about 1 year ago, when the Starship was robot was presented at the Mobile World Congress.

The starship is a six-wheeled, autonomous robot that looks pretty much like a cooler box on wheels.

The company is based in Estonia and was founded by skype creators Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis.

It seems like a pretty simple, straightforward concept:

You order food from a nearby restaurant online or via an App, and instead of a delivery guy, this little autonomous robot drives around the sidewalks of your neighborhood and delivers you your freshly cooked, warm meal. You unlock the "trunk" with your smartphone, pay digitally, and the robot returns home - that's it.
There are multiple cameras outside the body of the device that can help analyze its surroundings and avoid obstacles. The "trunk" can carry up to 22 pounds, and the robot has a speed of 4 mph.
The simplicity is a big benefit towards delivery drones that Amazon and Google are thinking about - this small "box on wheels" can operate with a lot less risk by simply navigating in the neighborhood and staying on the sidewalks.

In June, Starship has officially received the permission from the Washington, DC Department of Transportation to test their delivery program there.

They created the Personal Delivery Device Pilot Act, an act that allows autonomous delivery devices like the Starships to navigate in public areas.

And this is not something exclusive to the US:

On December first, the company "JUST EAT" announced that they will use some Starship robots in Greenwich, London from now on.
The company has a similar concept to deliveroo or foodora: they deliver food from restaurants that don't have their own delivery service.

But Starship is not the only company that offers Delivery Robots!

Famous Pizza chain Dominos already announced in March 2016 that they will start autonomous delivery in New Zealand with their own robots - which are being produced in Australia.
Their device is called DRU, Domino's Robotic Unit, it can hold up to 10 pizzas and can drive around and complete deliveries within a 20 mile radius with a single charge.

Personal Opinion

I think this idea of an autonomous delivery robot has been long overdue - everybody knows that wages are often the biggest expense of a company, and most jobs are being replaced with robots some time in the future - and it's already started.
The concept is simple and straightforward, but of course there are still some challenges to overcome (What if a pedestrian kicks the device over, or it gets stuck on an uneven ground ?!) but in generally I think it's a great innovation. I'd love to test it out myself one day, and see how user-friendly it actually is!

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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