Future of food delivery could be ... robots?
Pitt might join group of colleges trying it out
Imagine dashing to a meeting in Oakland and reaching the crosswalk, only to look down and notice you’re standing beside a 2-foot-tall robot poised to deliver burritos to ravenous students in a nearby dorm.
Move over, Uber Eats. Brace yourself, Grubhub. The food delivery business — at least on the University of Pittsburgh’s sprawling campus — is about to get more crowded. Not to mention, autonomous.
San Francisco-based Starship Technologies is working with the university and its food services vendor, Sodexo, to introduce a fleet of robots this fall to fulfill that most critical of scientific missions: making takeout easier for sleep-deprived (and sometimes over-partied) undergraduates plus others who study and work there.
If approved by the city, Pitt will join a handful of universities nationwide using these camera-equipped gizmos that are emission free, can navigate curbs and — perhaps best of all — don’t require tips beyond a service fee that’s typically $1.99.
The company has secured tens of millions of dollars in financing and hopes to eventually deliver food on 100 campuses.
Picture it: One day, you could be deep in contemplation while strolling the well-manicured grounds of a leading U.S. thought center, when one of these high-tech coolers on wheels ambles past at four miles an hour in search of the next food drop-off.
Pitt isn’t saying much about the project, which is under review by the city and subject to feedback from the Oakland community, whose residents will likely share sidewalks and streets with the bots and may wonder about congestion and safety.
“We’re continuing to work with the city and our Oakland neighbors toward a launch date later this fall,” said Pitt spokesman Kevin Zwick.
Turning heads elsewhere
At Purdue University, a fleet of 30 robots has been turning heads since the service debuted Monday on the campus of almost 45,000 students in West Lafayette, Ind.
Kassandra Melkey, 23, a Purdue senior from St. Louis, didn’t get to make coffee on Tuesday before her early morning, three-hour studio class. So once there, she tapped the Starship app on her phone, timed the order to a break, and about 30 minutes later an iced coffee and breakfast sandwich arrived from a Starbucks across campus — so fresh, she said, “The cheese was still melting.”
She tracked the bot’s progress on her phone using an interactive map and relied on an alert when it arrived outside the classroom
building. (The robots do not go inside.)
The app let her unlock the container holding her breakfast, and a male voice even said, “Thank you” and “Have a nice day. ” Then the bot — with sensors that reminded her of eyes — moved on to its next delivery.
“I thought, ‘Wow, I’m living in the future,’” she said. “My phone recognizes my face, my robot brings me breakfast. It’s like ‘The Jetsons.’”
Starship’s first campus was George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., debuting in January what the company said at the time was the world’s largest robotic delivery fleet on a university campus. In March, it added Northern Arizona University.
“Since the initial launches, both campuses have increased the number of robots, dining options and hours of operation to meet the high demand for the service,” the company said in a statement.
Lex Bayer, CEO of Starship, said he envisions one day serving more than 1 million college students.
Users download the app on IOS and Android systems. They then pick from various food and drink options available at campus eateries and enter a PIN where they want their delivery to be sent.
The 33 robots in use at Northern Arizona’s campus in Flagstaff collectively log about 500 deliveries daily, some as early as 7 a.m. and as late as 2 a.m., said Ben Hartley, director of campus dining. The service totaled 13,000 deliveries in seven weeks alone last spring.
Coffee drinks and breakfast sandwiches dominate the morning, then give way to chicken wings, pizza and toasted sandwiches by afternoon, he said. Late at night, it’s primarily chicken wings and pizza.
The boost in business has been most noticeable early mornings and late at night, perhaps the most inconvenient time to go out for food, especially in winter. The bots do not climb stairs, but can handle rain and even four inches of snow on sidewalks. If they run into trouble, they can be remotely operated, he said.
The novelty and the stares that come with it have begun to fade. “Now, they’re like any other pedestrian,” he said.
There are questions
At Pitt, university officials aren’t saying how many eateries run by Sodexo will offer robot delivery.
Naturally, there are questions:
Can these battery-powered, six-wheel devices climb Cardiac Hill to reach the Petersen Events Center, the dental school, fraternity houses and other dorm dwellers?
How long will a robot wait for a tardy customer before moving on with the eats?
What happens if the thing gets your order wrong?
And, why the heck isn’t this already a thing at Carnegie Mellon University, a global robotics leader located just up the street?
Starship appears confident it can handle delivery demand on campus from students, faculty and staff. It points to success in both restaurant and grocery deliveries. Worldwide, that includes 6,000 pizzas, 7,000 gallons of milk, 8,000 coffees, 9,000 sushi rolls, 15,000 bananas, as well as 3,700 diapers.
The company says its robots employ sophisticated sensors, artificial intelligence and machine learning to traverse sidewalks and find their way around obstacles, day or night. Campus officials say the robots can hold the equivalent of about three bags of groceries.
Karina Ricks, director of Pittsburgh’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure, noted growing demand for food and e-commerce deliveries, with much of it now dependent on short trips by motor vehicles. She said the city prefers people pick up their own items or use pedestrian or bike deliveries, but suggested that robots might have merit.
“We feel there is something to be learned from a small-scale demonstration deployment,” she said.
Before any launch, the city wants the company to interact with those from the neighborhood about any impacts on the public, including residents with disabilities. It also should explore merits of delivering medicine to homebound patients or fresh food delivery to those far removed from a grocery store.
“We want to make sure that there is, can or will be public value to this beyond ecommerce,” she said.
Protect the bots
At Purdue, some on campus actually equate the the small, curious-looking bots with pets, though none have been named — at least as of last week.
Students helped right a robot that had encountered difficulty and talked about helping the little guys cross the street.
This “protect-the-bots-atall-costs” mentality may be no surprise, since these road warriors will be the difference this winter between trudging through snow for a sandwich or waiting in the comfort of a dorm.
“They’re just so cute,” Ms. Melkey said.