Global perspectives - October 2016

Will robots be better at deliveries than drones?

Having your lunch delivered to your doorstep by a robot may sound like a scene straight out of The Jetsons, but an Estonian company may soon make that a reality. Starship Technologies began testing its autonomous delivery robots on the streets of San Francisco recently, and many other companies are developing similar solutions.

The battery-powered, coolbox-sized robots would replace large delivery trucks and travel small distances, saving carbon emissions and time.

While Amazon and Google are famously opting for drones to carry parcels, there is speculation that robots may just beat drones in the delivery race. This is largely down to the robots’ ability to better adapt to urban landscapes.

With delivery robots and drones the safety of pedestrians is the foremost concern. Robots roll down the pavement at 4mph and are equipped with sensors that prevent them from bumping into humans and inanimate objects. Malfunctioning robots could easily be fixed by local technicians, whereas drones could drop from the sky and cause serious injury or damage if the system failed.

Drones’ use of cameras raises privacy concerns. Seeing a foreign object in the sky carrying packages may also cause a fright, especially in a country such as the US where citizens are paranoid about security threats. 

Whether American urbanites will accept robots in densely populated city centres remains to be seen.