​Starship Technologies
Headquarters: ​San Francisco, CA, USAPublic: NOWebsite​: https://www.starship.xyz
Products:
- ​Starship
​Applications:
- ​Delivery
Background
​Launched in 2014 by Skype co-founders, Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis, Starship Technologies today operates in several cities across the world. ​Their business headquarters are in San Francisco with ​the main engineering office in Estonia. An international company, they have offices in ​London, Milton Keynes, Washington, D.C, Mountain View, California, San Jose, California, Fairfax, Virginia, Flagstaff, Arizona, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Rotterdam and Hamburg, Germany.
​The delivery robot uses a mixture of computer vision and GPS to pinpoint its exact location to the nearest inch. ​The vehicle operates on public sidewalks to transport deliveries from a local vendor to the customer. The primary application to this point has been “last mile” delivery of prepared foods, such as pizza or sandwiches from restaurants in an urban setting. However, ​ Starship can deliver anything that can fit inside its delivery container such as parcels, groceries, food, laundry, medication, flowers, etc. The robot can have separate compartments for hot and cold food
The robots can drive autonomously in pre-mapped areas. The mapping process is highly efficient and involves the robots under human control for the first runs. After the routes have been mapped, the robots can at any given time turn to remote human operators for assistance when making decisions in unexpected situations or when dealing with social interaction. Due to local laws and regulations, the legality of the robot operation on sideways varies from country to country and city to city. The following US ​states have approved Starship operations: Virginia, Idaho, Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, Utah, Arizona, Washington and Texas (August, 2019).
​The vehicle can effectively make deliveries at a cost of about $1 to $2 per delivery. Any company or campus that needs to deliver goods to consumers is a good application for Starship. Starship is currently focusing on hot food, groceries and packages
​The vehicle has several measures to prevent theft in route. The cargo hold is locked. The vehicle is tracked live. There are live cameras displaying the surroundings of the robot enroute. If the robot is picked up, sirens will go off. And since the vehicle location is tracked in real time, it would be easy to locate the robot if it was picked up and moved.
