Starship Technologies has announced that it has reached a major milestone: completing over 50,000 commercial deliveries.
Founded by Skype cofounders Janus Friis and Ahti Heinla, Starship Technologies is now the world’s leading provider of autonomous delivery services, with its small self-driving robotic vehicles now delivering goods in over 100 cities.
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The small white “ground drones” have become a common site in some towns, with residents in Milton Keynes in the UK accustomed to seeing the robots carrying out their deliveries in neighbourhoods and corporate campuses, travelling along pavements at the same speed as a pedestrian.
According to Starship, their autonomous delivery robots have now travelled over 200,000 miles, the equivalent of going round the world eight times.
Starship Technologies in the UK
Today the company is also celebrating its one year anniversary of operating in Milton Keynes. Now completing thousands of deliveries per week, Starship’s robots began delivering groceries and other items from a Co-op food store in Milton Keynes to shoppers’ front doors in April 2018 (for a fee of £7.99 a month). The number of houses subscribed to the service in the town grow by 450% in the last year, with the most popular items ordered including milk, bread and chocolate.
As well as convenience, the delivery robots have the added benefit of cutting the number of unnecessary car journeys, eliminating tens of thousands of journeys since their launch in Milton Keynes. It may also be beneficial for businesses, with Starship saying that the service means that residents are more likely to buy groceries on multiple occasions throughout the week.
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By GlobalDataThe growth in popularity of Starship’s services in the town has also seen the company announce a new partnership with a second Co-op store in Milton Keynes, adding to the delivery service also offered from a Tesco store in the town.
These numbers may be small when compared to the likes of Amazon or Dominos, but the company’s signature robots may soon become a more common site, with the company launching a significant US expansion. Just last month the company brought its autonomous delivery services to Northern Arizona University, following a launch at George Mason University campus in Virginia in January.
Lex Bayer, CEO of Starship Technologies, said:
“Today is a significant milestone for Starship as we celebrate passing 50,000 deliveries with our autonomous robots. The popularity of our service continues, and we are delighted to be expanding to additional neighbourhoods and university campuses across the world.
“It has been exciting to see the increase in ‘top up shopping’ by residents in Milton Keynes where they buy groceries on multiple occasions throughout the week now that they have the option of autonomous delivery.”
