Starship electric sidewalk-delivery robot a hit at DC Auto Show

Via GCR: http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1108594_starship-electric-sidewalk-delivery-robot-a-hit-at-dc-auto-show

What would you do if a small, knee-high box on wheels with a flag topping its tall antenna whirred toward you electrically on a sidewalk at 4 miles per hour?

It turns out three-quarters of the pedestrians in several cities who've seen one didn't stop or even stare as it avoided them and continued on its way.

That box is an electric sidewalk delivery robot, and the British company Starship Technologies now has 75 to 80 of them testing in 59 cities in 16 countries, including the U.S. . . .

Click to expand...

There's video. Think of it as a Roomba that delivers. The obvious downside I see is that this will be a prime candidate for the urban equivalent of cow-tipping. While that activity may be apocryphal, Smart-tipping was very real, and this would be much easier to accomplish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBqFW-snRWE

Whether it would just be a fad and quickly fade away, or something that had staying power, IDK.

Actually it all started in Estonia. I've seen those ships multiple times last year.

Interesting, if headquarter is in London, this automatically makes company British.
Even though first office was in Tallinn.... And engineering is done here even today :|

Those ships are RHD. Therefore not British - definitely :lol:

There are always idiots. Nothing is protected from them. But If I see somebody fiddling with
a robot randomly, I have no problem to ask him to f**k off.
Also those robots are online. So I think reporting to security company and make some selfies won't be nuclear science.