Starship’s ground delivery robot has started making express home deliveries of electronic goods to consumers in Düsseldorf, Germany, in its latest pilot project.
German electronics chain Media Markt announced yesterday that the robots will make deliveries from a store in the city’s Grafental district to nearby homes over the coming months.
Under the pilot project, customers in the test area can buy a product through the Media Markt online shop, selecting delivery from their local store. They have to provide their mobile phone number as this is required to inform them when the robot arrives at their home as well as to provide a code for them to open the robot and take out their order.
The Düsseldorf project is the latest in a series for UK-based Starship Technologies, including with parcel delivery company Hermes in Hamburg, Swiss Post in Berne and Just Eat in the UK, while it has partnered with Mercedes in the latter’s Robovan project.
“We’re delighted that Media Markt is the first company in Germany to use the delivery robot with consumers,” said Volker Barth, manager of the test branch in Düsseldorf’s Metrostraße. “With the new Grafental housing area, which directly adjoins Media Markt in the Metrostraße, we have the ideal situation, together with Starship, to test the robot in a compact delivery zone in real-life conditions. We’re keen to see how our customers react to the robot and how it proves itself.”
For the Media-Saturn consumer electronics group, part of the Düsseldorf-based Metro Group, the use of delivery robots is a good opportunity to offer customers near-real-time delivery while reducing costs.
“Delivery at a preferred time as well as speed are becoming increasingly important in our delivery process,” commented Martin Wild, the group’s Chief Digital Officer.
Helen Karleep, Head of Testing and Operations with Starship Technologies, added: “We’re delighted to start the first deliveries in Düsseldorf together with Media Markt. Our aim is to understand better how our delivery robot can support people in daily life. In the long run, of course we would like to become the favourite delivery option for Media Markt customers.”
The Starship self-driving delivery robots have a load capacity of up to 10 kg and are designed for delivering packages, groceries and food to consumers within a 5 km radius. The robots can drive 99% autonomously, while being monitored by human operators in control centres.
They travel at walking pace on pavements and in pedestrian zones, navigate autonomously to their destination and avoid obstacles and danger points automatically. The robots navigate using a mixture of geolocation signals (e.g. GPS) and visual recognition of the environment using multiple cameras.
