The race to deliver by robot is on. A San Francisco-based startup, Dispatch, has joined the ground delivery trend with their robot, Carry. The startup, founded by a team of roboticists from MIT, UPenn, Princeton, and Stanford, plans on offering a simple, affordable on-demand delivery through a fleet of autonomous robots.
Carry is the startup’s delivery boy on wheels. Similar to the competing folks at Starship Technologies, Carry is a wheeled vehicle with an internal container designed to haul groceries and packages. The robot will focus on short deliveries over private turf rather than deliveries from business to consumer like UPS and friends.
Carry is about a yard long and tall and no wider than a wheelchair. Overcoming the limitations of a delivery truck, it’ll be able to trek over sidewalks and deliver straight to the door. According to the startup, Carry could make the whole delivery process more efficient by eliminating the need for delivery drivers to get out of their vehicles.
Unlike Starship Technologies, who is testing on public ground, Dispatch is gearing testing towards private university. According to TechCrunch, the startup plans to test Carry on college campuses in California next year.
Customers who holler at Dispatch for delivery will do so using the startup’s app. Payload contents, delivery times and status can be accessed within the app.
Being such a small vehicle, there’s a good chance someone will bump into it during a routine delivery. The usual countermeasures for making robots avoid things automatically are ultrasonic and infrared sensors, and that’s what we’ve seen with Starship Technologies. We’re not sure what Dispatch has in the works, but we’re sure they’ll work it out before delivery.
Dispatch recently raised seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz and will be using the funds to expand their team with key roles. No price has been set on the premium of robot delivery, but we’re hoping it won’t be as hefty as the goods being delivered.
Source: Dispatch Via: TechCrunch
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