Self-Driving Food

More and more people order food and dishes online and then have them delivered by delivery service. Both retailers and restaurants are already testing self-driving delivery robots. In the future, once the technology has matured even further and liability issues have been clarified, it will be quite normal for autonomous robots in the form of drones or vehicles to take over delivery, especially in urban agglomerations. The corresponding providers control the machines from the control center and can intervene at any time if there are problems with traffic lights or crowds. For the time being, however, customers must be prepared to accept food on the street. After all, tipping is no longer necessary.

The startup Startship Technologies delivers food (mainly pizza) by robot. While there were just 5,000 deliveries worldwide in September 2017, there were already 1 million deliveries in January 2021. Corona and appropriate precautions to prevent contagion certainly played into this development’s hands. Vodafone and REWE have sent the “first autonomously driving kiosk in Europe” onto the streets. On the road in Cologne’s Mühlheim business campus, the small robot vehicle provides office workers and passersby with snacks during the day.

Best Practices: FLYTREX, STARSHIP TECHNOLOGIES, DISCOPETER, VODAFONE & REWE

Photo: Unsplash