Starship and Co-op roll out robot food deliveries in Greater Manchester

Robots are heading to the streets of Greater Manchester in northern England as autonomous delivery company Starship Technologies has partnered with Trafford Council and the Co-op to bring autonomous grocery delivery to residents across Sale.

The service will initially be available to 24,000 residents across 10,500 households. Orders are made through the Starship food delivery app. Groceries are picked fresh in two local Co-op stores in Sale (Washway Road and Coppice Avenue) and delivered locally, quickly and conveniently on-demand in minutes.

Customers choose from a wide range of grocery items, schedule their delivery, then drop a pin where they want their delivery to be sent. They can watch the robot travel in real-time via an interactive map, and will receive an alert when it arrives, and can meet and unlock the robot’s lid through the app to retrieve their groceries.

The launch in Greater Manchester continues Starship’s recent expansion across the north of England. The company’s robots are already a familiar and popular sight in several other UK towns and cities including Milton Keynes, Northampton, Bedford, Cambourne, Cambridge and Leeds. 

Andrew Curtis, UK Operations Manager at Starship Technologies, said: “We are very pleased to offer the benefits of autonomous delivery to thousands of residents in Greater Manchester from today and continue our expansion in the north of England. The robots provide ease and convenience for people, while also making a positive contribution to reducing congestion and carbon emissions. We are confident that the service will be well received and look forward to a long-standing relationship with Trafford Council to hopefully roll the service out further in the months ahead.”

Chris Conway, eCommerce Director, Co-op, said: “Co-op stores are well placed in the heart of local communities to provide quick, easy and convenient home deliveries – whether a full shop or last-minute top-ups. We are committed to exploring new and innovative ways to increase access to our products and services, and are delighted to be able to roll-out autonomous robots to the streets of Greater Manchester.”

Starship Technologies will celebrate five years of commercial service next month, and since launch the company’s robots have safely completed more than four million deliveries around the world. Globally, the robots undertake 140,000 road crossings every day, with people using the service for its convenience and ease of use to fit shopping around their busy lives.

With a delivery fee starting from just 99p, Starship’s robots are battery powered, lightweight and travel at the speed of a pedestrian. They use a combination of sensors, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to travel on pavements and navigate around any obstacles, while computer vision-based navigation helps them map their environment to the nearest inch.