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Starship Technologies launches autonomous robot delivery service in Tempe

Starship Technologies has rolled out its robot food delivery service in Tempe.

Locals can now order contact-less delivery from three area restaurants – Fate Brewing Company, Tempe City Tacos and Venezia’s Pizza, which is famous for its multiple references in the popular TV shows Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.

More restaurants and grocery stores will be added to the service soon.

Starship’s fleet of more than 30 autonomous, on-demand robots deliver daily from 10.30 am to 8.30 pm.

The delivery area is currently bordered by S Mill Avenue to the east, S Rural Road to the west, Route 60 to the south and Southern Avenue to the north. The delivery area will be expanded in the coming weeks.

Starship recently added service in Washington, DC by offering grocery delivery and also added more service areas in Milton Keynes, UK where the robots have been delivering food and groceries to local residents since 2018.

Starship is continuing its delivery services on multiple college campuses across the US where international and grad students are residing.

To get started, users open the Starship Deliveries app, available on iOS and Android, choose from a range of their favorite food or drink items, then drop a pin where they want their delivery to be sent.

They can then watch as the robot makes its journey to them, via an interactive map. Once the robot arrives, they receive an alert, and can then meet and unlock it through the app.

The delivery usually takes just a matter of minutes, depending on the menu items ordered and the distance the robot must travel. Each robot can carry up to 20 lbs – the equivalent of about three shopping bags of goods.

Ryan Tuohy, SVP business development at Starship Technologies, says: “The demand for contact-less delivery has expanded exponentially in recent weeks.

“We’re looking forward to serving the Tempe community as more people are looking for ways to support local businesses while spending more time at home.

“Our robots are doing autonomous deliveries in five countries and we’re grateful that our robots can make life a little bit easier for everyone.”

Starship Technologies operates commercially on a daily basis around the world. Its robots have traveled over 500,000 miles, crossed more than 5 million streets and completed more than 100,000 commercial deliveries.

The robots use a combination of sophisticated machine learning, artificial intelligence and sensors to travel on sidewalks and navigate around obstacles. The computer vision-based navigation helps the robots to map their environment to the nearest inch.

The robots can cross streets, climb curbs, travel at night and operate in both rain and snow. A team of humans can also monitor their progress remotely and can take control at a moment’s notice.

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