Just Eat with Starship Technologies Work Together to Launch the First Food Delivery Robot
This is not a scene from a fictional movie, this is real and might become an upcoming trend in the food delivery industry. One of the leading marketplace for online food delivery, Just Eat, which is based in London are working together with Starship Technologies to launch an autonomous robot to deliver food to their customers. They have successfully launched food delivery using a self-driving robot in Greenwich, South East London. Simone, a regular customer of Just Eat became the first person to ever received her order delivered by a robot. She placed an order to a local Turkish restaurant called Taksim Meze using Just Eat app, and what a surprise when she found out that it wasn’t a man knocking on her door to deliver the meal.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened the door to find a robot waiting to greet me – it was like something out of a movie. It is really incredible to think that this kind of technology and service is now available. It was very efficient and actually texted me when it pulled up. The only thing I wasn’t sure of is whether or not to tip!” said Simone. The process from placing the order to its delivery is pretty simple. Simone placed her order which was Falafel and Lamb Cutlets through the app, then restaurant manager, Ana Maria Stingaciu requested that a robot make the delivery – a local robot travelled to the restaurant while the meal was being prepared. Freshly cooked, Taksim Meze placed Simone’s order securely in the robot’s cargo hold and Simone then received a text message to let her know that her order was on route, with the robot. Ten minutes later, Simone received a text message with a unique link to open the cargo hold of the robot that was waiting at her door. So we could assume that the system was pretty safe.
The successful launch of this program started with five months trial done in that area, to make all the procedure happening seamlessly. Moreover, their next target is to serve the customers in Greenwich with automated robot deliveries. Since the program is still in early development, not all customers are able to opt the robot service for the meantime. There are also plans to expand the program across London in 2017. While this milestone marks a new phase in London’s food delivery industry, we could not see it happening soon in Indonesia for the risk the robot might be stolen on the way.
