Robots Deliver Food at University of Denver, UW Could Be Next
Doesn't this sound super futuristic?
I have to pinch myself reading that headline, and I'm the one who wrote it. Robots are becoming a part of our everyday life. Now, do they look like Rosie from The Jetsons? No. In fact, these robots don't look like people at all. Maybe Hollywood lied to us.
The robots I'm talking about are small, 6-wheeled, autonomous coolers... at least, that's what they look like to me.
After reading an article about Domino's dispatching robot delivery cars through a partnership with Nuro, I decided to dig deeper. These look like little smart cars without a driver in the front seat. In fact, there are no people in the car at all. Apparently when your order arrives you will need to enter a pin code into the robot in order to receive your meal. If these tests are successful, these self=-driving robots will be on the streets with the rest of us.
However, there are also pedestrian robots that are already delivering food across the country.
My research took me to Starship Technologies. This company wants to roll our self-driving robots to 100 college campuses across the country by 2022. That means they are already starting to pop up.
Now, what's different about these robots is that they are much smaller than the Nuro ones that Domino's is testing out. These robots look like rolling coolers, like the one pictured above. So far, these guys are already in use at and handful of campuses.
Then there's Sodexo.
Sodexo is currently making robot deliveries at the University of Denver. Their robots are similar to Starships ones in size and purpose. The mission is simply to get hot meals delivered to students on campuses that can often times be car-less. Many college campuses are closed to thru traffic.
And it doesn't stop there.
Many companies like FedEx and Amazon are also testing out these delivery robots. These little guys can vary in size and deliver more than just food Several states have already legalized them for road use, sidewalk use, or both.
What do you think? Super cool idea? Or does it kind of freak you out, like it does me?