Member Article

Just Eat bringing autonomous food delivery robots to London

Online food delivery firm Just Eat is to pioneer autonomous food delivery vehicles on London’s streets after announcing a new partnership with Starship Technologies.

The trial, which is to begin in the next few months, will see the food marketplace use Starship’s self-driving delivery robots to drop off takeaway orders which are secured by passcode only sent to the customer.

Starship Technologies was founded in 2014 by the co-founders of Skype, and has been working on autonomous self-driving robots that can deliver food, packages and other items to consumers over short distances.

While the vehicles are designed to drive autonomously, their status is monitored by humans at a command centre who are able to take control at any time.

Commenting on the new trial, Fernando Fanton, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Just Eat believes it is a testament to the business’ reputation for ‘pushing technology boundaries’ and will give its partners more choice and flexibility.

He added: “We’ve always been committed to offering our customers new ways to order and pay for their food and now we’re right at the heart of a new way of delivering food which is as exciting for us as it will be for those who find a robot on their doorstep.”

Estonia-based Starship has slowly been introducing the robots to European and American cities since the end of last year and recently completed a delivery trial in Greenwich earlier in the year.

Hailing the team at the tech firm, David Buttress, CEO of Just Eat added: “As soon as we met the Starship team, we found their passion for their product infectious.

“With scalable innovation at the core of their business, they are the perfect partner for us at Just Eat as we continuously look for sustainable ways to use technology to make our customers’ and restaurant partners lives easier. We can’t wait to bring the delivery robots to local high streets very soon.”