Sell on wheels: Delivery robots on a roll
A robot could soon be delivering takeout food or weekly groceries to your doorstep. And that dress or gadget you ordered online might be dropped via an Amazon or UPS drone.
Is non-human package delivery the future or hype? Florida legislators are betting that robotic and drone package deliveries are just around the corner. They approved “unmanned vehicle” legislation this spring and Gov. Rick Scott gave it the green light.
The new law, which became effective July1, paves theway for a personal delivery device on sidewalks, while allowing local governments to write the rules for public safety. Florida is among the few states to pass such a law.
Here’s how it would work: After placing an order online and choosing a company’s robotic delivery, the customerreceives a text that the package is ready. At the desired delivery time, the robot rolls its way with the package to a sidewalk near you, where the customer uses his mobile phone number to unlock and retrieve the package.
“You can return the package the same way — returns are a big problem in e-commerce,” said Allan Martinson, chief operating officer of Starship Technologies, a London-based robotics developer that lobbied for the Florida law. Using GPS and Computer Vision, Starship’s robots can deliver 20 pounds or up to three packages within 15 to 45 minutes inside a two-mile radius.
Florida’s law also laid out some requirements for drone operation and delivery, which already is legal in the state.
Starship already has begunto operate semi-autonomous device delivery services in theU.S. and Europe.
The company plans to launch testing in a few months in Florida and could be operating through partners by the end of this year or early next, Martinson said. He added that Starship is in the process of choosing a Florida site for its initial tests. He declined to say whether South Florida is in the running.
“We’ve had 10 to 20 requests from Florida businesses to bring the robot delivery there — some are small businesses, others bigger companies that operate in Florida,” he said.
Starship was started in 2014 by Skype co-founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis. Its robot, which looks like a cooler on six wheels, has been tested in more than 70 cities worldwide. Starship’s devices already are doing daily takeout food deliveries in Washington, D.C., and Redwood City, Calif.
Florida Sen. Jeffrey Brandes, R- St. Petersburg, worked with Starship to get legislators on board for the bill allowing sidewalk delivery.
Brandes said he was introduced to Starship at the National Council of State Legislators in Chicago last year. Starship demonstrated its robot for the Florida Legislature by letting it roam the Capitol’s halls in Tallahassee.
The senator said Florida could be entering “exciting times,” when milk could be delivered via robot from the local 7-Eleven, for example, or a delivery truck could drop off a robot in a subdivision to deliver packages to each house.
“The driver doesn’t have to drive all through the neighborhood to get to your house. It also provides some security because they notify you [of delivery],” Brandes said.
But vehicles couldn’t legally operate on sidewalks in the state, so the law was needed to allow that. “The first step is to let them operate,” he said.
Rep. Clay Yarborough, RJacksonville, a co-sponsor of the House bill, said the lawlays a “consistent framework” for commercial use of personal delivery devices on sidewalks and unmanned aircraft commonly called drones. But the bill makes room for counties and cities to issue regulations to prohibit illegal acts with devices and drones, such as property damage, voyeurism and reckless engagement, and ban drone flights over critical infrastructure.
With the new law, “you can’t say it’s illegal to use a drone,” Yarborough said. But “we don’t want to restrict local government to be able to enforce ordinances for public safety,” he said.
Starship’sMartinson said the company’s concept is to “make sure humans are not carrying anything. It’s stupid to waste human time carrying packages and food. Robots will free up the time of people.”
Robot delivery “is going to be inevitable because it makes sense,” Martinson said. He asserted that consumers won’t have to spend their time grocery shopping for the regular items they buy everyweek.
“In the U.S., we believe it will take 5 to 10 years to get the robots delivering a large part of the goods,” Martinson said. He said Starship has more than 10 competitors worldwide that are developing robot delivery systems.
Martinson said Starship is not concerned about package security or robot theft because the unit has nine cameras and live video. “It can talk to a person. It’s almost impossible to break,” he said. Worldwide tests show that “80 percent of people don’tpay attention to the robots,” he added. “They just pass by.”
Hewouldn’t say what the delivery devices cost, but the price is “much closer to a robotic vacuum cleaner [than] the self-driving car.”
So far, Starship isworking with food delivery company DoorDash, logistics company Postmates, and 1-800-Flowers.
DoorDash, which launched in the Miami area in February, “is always testing new ways” to make restaurant ordering simpler — including deliveries by robot, DoorDash spokesman Eitan Bencuya said.
But Starship has yet to snag a partnership with any of the big delivery players. “We do not have an agreement with UPS or FedEx at this point,” Martinson said.
Meanwhile, those major companies have their own plans for more efficient delivery methods.
FedEx is testing both autonomous ground and new aviation delivery methods, said spokeswoman Jennifer Caccavo Cordeau. But chief information officer Rob Carter told the MIT Technology Review that autonomous vehicles make more “sense” than drones, which are regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration.
In February near Tampa, UPS tested the HorseFly drone developed by Ohiobased Workhorse Group. A video shows a UPS driver placing a package aboard a drone, which takes off from the truck, delivers the package to a rural area, then returns.
The successful test “has implications for future deliveries, especially in rural locations where our package cars have to travel miles to make a single delivery,” said Mark Wallace, UPS senior vice president of global engineering, in a news release.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos toldCNNin 2015 that drone delivery will one day be “as common as seeing a mail truck.” The idea initially received derision from critics, but the world’s third-largest retailer has since launched Amazon Prime Air, a service designed to deliver packages
“It’s stupid to waste human time carrying packages and food.” Starship’s AdamMartinson
weighing up to five pounds in 30 minutes using small drones.
In March, Amazon’s Prime Air made its first delivery in the United Kingdom.
Whether by truck or air, Amazon has been laying the foundation for faster deliveries across theU.S. In June, Amazon opened a Prime Now distribution center in the Wynwood Arts District in Miami. Amazon also announced last month that it will open an 800,000-square-foot distribution center at Opa-locka Executive Airport in Miami
Potentially, such hubs could be used by Amazon Prime Air.
But some industry analysts remain skeptical that robotic deliveries will become the norm. Delivery droneswon’t be a major factor for several years, according to a 2016 report by Gartner, a research firm in Stamford, Conn. The analysis says “the return on investment has not yet been proven.”
Gerald Van Hoy, senior research analyst forGartner, forecast a downdraft for drone services: “Delivery zones will be mired in logistical issues like the time needed to return a drone to its origin point after delivery, and be less than 1 percent of thecommercial market by 2020.” .