The encyclopedia · Software & IT · Product decision · 2014–2020s
Starship moved last-mile delivery onto the sidewalk to win the expensive final leg
A six-wheeled footpath robot dodges traffic and parking, making the costliest mile cheap.
Starship Technologies
the move
The final mile of delivery is the costliest because vans crawl through traffic, pay for parking and carry a driver who spends most of the trip moving slowly.
Skype co-founder Ahti Heinla, inspired by building a robot for a NASA Mars dust-picking competition, launched Starship on July 3, 2014 with a ground robot for the same task on Earth.
Instead of a van, it drives on the sidewalk, so the robot is small and electric and can be supervised remotely; it was the world's first delivery robot, silently carrying groceries, hot food and industrial supplies.
why it works
- Footpaths avoid the traffic and parking that make vans idle most of the time.
- A small robot needs less energy and no driver, so the delivery labor cost largely disappears.
- One operator can supervise several robots remotely, scaling without hiring per delivery.
- Walking speed is fine because the distance is short and dense.
what transfers
Choose a different route, not a bigger vehicle — changing the mode of the last mile beats optimizing the truck.
what came after
Starship's robots delivered over a million parcels on university campuses and in towns, and the company raised funding to expand autonomous sidewalk delivery — establishing the sidewalk robot as a real alternative to the delivery van.
references
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