Now Land Based Drones Will Deliver Pizza In US

Flying drones are complicated business. Land-based drones will do for now. And pedestrians on America’s footpaths will have to contend with these self-driving, wheeled robots delivering hot pizza, groceries or mail very soon.

Thanks to London-based Starship Technologies, these quiet delivery robots are moving out of lab tests and onto actual streets in three US states -- in District of Columbia, parts of California, and Virginia, according to an ArsTechnica  report. Other US states and countries around the world are currently finalizing rules and regulation to get more of these delivery robot fleets commercialized and available for businesses to deploy on footpaths.

Starship Technologies' delivery robots aren’t meant for the road; they’re designed for 'walking' on the footpath at a normal pedestrian’s pace. These autonomous delivery robots have navigation assistance cameras and GPS-guided delivery routes to help them deliver items up to 23 kg within a 2-mile radius.

          

While these robots are navigating footpaths or sidewalks, they can alert passersby of their presence, taking every precaution to slow down and stop at connecting paths before they finally arrive at their intended destination. The customer gets a message and a secure link to unlock and access the robot’s storage compartment to retrieve the goods you ordered -- could be a piping hot pizza, too, as the robots are designed to keep food hot or cold in transit.

 All of this is cool, who wouldn’t want their food and shopping bag delivered by a self-driving robot, eh? But what happens when these robots are kidnapped en-route or their storage compartment is broken into? So many unanswered question..