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Self-Driving Delivery Robots To Hit Sidewalks of London In 2016 (thestack.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Estonian start-up Starship Technologies is taking a different approach to automated delivery with a ground-based self-driving robot. Headquartered in London and launched by two ex-Skype founders, the robotics company has unveiled its suburban pavement-strolling bot which can travel at a speedy 4mph. Starship claims that the 40-pound machine could deliver packages in 5 to 30 minutes from local retailers and restaurants. The company argues that a grounded approach to automated delivery will remove some of the safety concerns linked to flying drone systems, as the robot is much less likely to cause harm.
amusing they call themselves 'starship technologies' but maybe it's because the earth is a spaceship.
either way, I welcome our robotic overlords :)
Never antropomorphize computers, they do not like that
What's to keep these from being carried to the nearest alley and a relieved of their payloads?
To precent mischief future bots will have to deter theft.... one suggested sticker:
DELIVERY BOT CARRIES LESS THAN 2GB OF RAM AT ALL TIMES.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Sounds so much safer having these bots on the crowded streets than in the relatively clear skies.
Goes to show that past performance is no predictor of future success. Unless they already have a shonky acquisition with MS already lined up.
15 times cheaper than a Mexican on a bicycle?
Wow. Just. Wow.
I can see a lot of people getting hurt because they run/walk into them (not looking up from their phone), or because they just freak-out, or assume it will move out of their way (will it, or will it just stop and wait for the way to clear?)
Give a hand, not a hand-out.
You know, you all are some lazy-ass motherfuckers.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Everyday there seems to be more and more of this crap..
In as many new dreams these companies have, we see just as many stories of all this tech stuff being hacked.. Drones, cars, banks, governments..
It's almost like a fairy tale.. Some are getting rich from it, either via grants, buy-outs or wannabe Wall Street and insane IPO's (Facebook anyone?)
So what's going to happen when hacker meets all this automation crap? Seriously, if even 10% of all this crap ever makes into the real world, how, where and what is going to cover the liability..
With the Gov's trying to block any sort of encryption at every chance, and also playing terrorist (suxnet), how can anyone even possibly see any of this working out for the actual betterment of life?
200 of these things get hacked and decide to ______. I mean seriously...
Oil filter missing and covered in graffiti - with no log of what happened.
Will they have plungers sticking out the front, and roll around saying "Exterminate! Exterminate!"?
Sorry Boyz.
Londoners are all over you and have the jump.
When you think you got the Huff, the Londoners Have the Jump.
Too bad for you. Ha ha
The thing that came to mind was: "They will all be stolen within a couple of days". If it's not nailed down in London, someone will steal it.
The second thing that came to mind was: "If it's not stolen yet, a bike courier will smash it to bits with a hammer".
The third thing that came to mind was: "Those that aren't stolen or smashed will be used as transport/for a laugh by pissheads".
The final thing that came to mind was: "That's a clever idea and I can see more uses than groceries/crap in them".
However then I remembered 1,2 and 3 again.
I wonder if these robots need to have breakable encryption ... if the government can't learn about what they're delivering and where to, what's the point?
Knowing the streets of London, there are lots of kurbs, sunken manhole covers, uneven paving slabs and just hundreds of road crossings. This thing better have some clever way of keeping moving over quite rough ground without getting stuck. Meanwhile if it's carrying anything worth delivering then someone will try to have it away. Also most Londoners don't live on the ground floor, how does it get the attention of the target person to come and meet it in the street? The project will probably fail and the police will hijack it and use them as camera drones. Maybe even parking enforment.
London has pavements.
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How long before the Muslims use one to deliver a bomb?
Self-driving delivery robots hit the streets of Verbania in 2010 and it just ended up on the local paper. Couldn't get anyone to invest in it. Why?
Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
Can they be hacked via WiFi/Bluetooth/whatnot? ... :-) :-)
I can imagine some people re-programming these for a detour into somebody garage for looting.
Or simply having them drive around in circles or chug along the highway, sprayed with graffity sprayed all over them.
Countless possibilities.
The first thing my buddy's gonna get when amazon sends out it's delivery drones is a shotgun.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
So cheap! That's about 61 US dollars at the moment!
Sorry is this tech only for delivering to American Tourists because they're the only people in London who use the term sidewalk
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
You know what else moves at 4mph on a pavement. The elderly in mobility scooters, potentially we could give them souped up mobility scouters and let them be low speed couriers around London.
For some reason I find that more frightening than a robot doing the deliveries..
Outside the USA, there are very few sidewalks and none in London.
As English is not only our first language but it goes back centuries, we have pavements.
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
Isn't that for pedestrians? I thought there were exemptions for mobility scooters, and buggies, but basically it's for people. I think you'd get into trouble driving robots around on it...
The articles says that the high res cameras and GPS will be a deterrent. One could imagine thieves wearing balaclavas, but still things like gate-analysis or stand-off iris imaging will put the thieves at risk of being spotted by other cameras later and then identified in the future. Perhaps it will also employ something like an electric eel defense.
In any case the economics of this are odd. They state that it will allow deliveries for $1 which they claim is 15 times less than a human driver. Empirically it does not cost $15 to deliver most packages. However that depends on what you are comparing too. A 40 pound package might easily cost over $25 to deliver. And if were talking same day delivery then more. On the otherhand, the last mile is not the only cost and I would assume that for heavy and same day delivery that much of the cost is in the upstream logistics. So perhaps this is meant for same day delivery of relatively heavy items where perhaps $15 makes sense.
An additional cost savings is in the return of items. Being able to return things easily even if it is not free is a major incentive to shop stores like Sierra Trading post, Amazon and others with liberal return policies. Being able to do that return for free would revolutionize the industry.
Thus I would conclude the big deal here is the low cost of returns.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Only a few remaining bugs need to be worked out.
Have gnu, will travel.
> Self-Driving Delivery Robots To Hit Sidewalks of London In 2016
Why can't they have good enough collision avoidance so that they DO NOT hit the sidewalks?
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Flying drones will only risk injuring someone if they have a catastrophic failure and just happen to land on someone when they fall to earth.
The land-drones will be in very close proximity to people the entire time they are operating creating numerous opportunity for injury on a constant basis. Way more people will be injured by these things than by flying drones.
Plus, people will just kick them over when they are in their way.
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
If these things don't drive along the road, but instead use the sidewalks, it constitutes the UK-equivalent of a private taking of a public good.
Sidewalks are for pedestrians, and sometimes bicycles (depending upon local laws &/or enforcement).
Yes, the lid is locked, but what stops anyone from following these bots with a van, open the side door, break the antenna off, and then grab that whole thing for disassembly at home? Or what if there are distortions (accidentally or intentionally) in the radio transmission that send that robot into a ditch for easy pickup? What engineers better spend their time on is redesigning living quarters to be walkable with plenty of services offered. That way we do not need dumb ideas like grocery delivery robots and no longer have to worry about widespread obesity.