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Dusseldorf /Â DPA
Drivers slam on their car brakes, children want to play with it and impressed pensioners ask if it can carry their shopping; when delivery robot Robbie goes on test runs, everyone’s agog. The six-wheeled delivery robot, designed by Estonian firm Starship and about the size of a lawnmower,
is being trialled in London, in two
German cities and in the Estonian
capital Tallinn.
There are already around 50 of the robots. Reactions to the pilot project in Dusseldorf, Germany at the end of September were overwhelmingly positive, says Media-Saturn spokeswoman Eva Simmelbauer. The consumer-electronics retailer is the first company in Germany to use a Robbie.
Older people were especially impressed at bumping into the robot, according to supervisor Dino Dessi from Starship. Would it also do duty as a self-piloting shopping cart, they ask.
Children, on the other hand, wanted to play with it and even tried to climb aboard. Rather than milk, bread or jam, the robot was used to deliver mail-order goods for Media-Saturn.
In another test in the northern city of Hamburg, the Robbie trundled around delivering mixed packages for parcels company Hermes to around 100 test households in high-rise flats.
During this test period, due to last until at least the end of the year, at least two people are always monitoring each Robbie.
On journeys outside of Estonia, it is accompanied by a “handler†who goes with it on foot, while in Tallinn an “operator†is constantly connected with the remotely controlled robot. Only in Tallinn have there been trials with no human tagging along, says Starship spokesman Philip Schroeder.
If these tests go well, commercial use could follow next year, Starship says. Those deliveries would then only be monitored by the remote operator. In Dusseldorf, the 100 test households had to ask for express delivery via robot, but were refunded the on-top fee.
Once the introductory phase is over, Starship insists the cost of the robot option when you order goods online will sink to around 1 euro (1.1 dollar) per delivery. That would make the robot cheaper than mail or traditional parcel services.
Customers could book the robot
via an app and choose the hour of
their delivery.
The robot would sets out at just faster than walking pace — around 6 kilometres an hour — from its station, which would serve addresses within a radius of several kilometres.
Only when the robot reaches its destination can it be opened by the customer; the delivery is also monitored by the operator, who can call the police if anyone tries to steal the payload or the robot itself.
Retail-trade experts like Boris Hedde of IFH, a Cologne think-tank, respond that instant delivery services like Amazon Prime are simply over-rated. The majority of customers have got used to online orders arriving within two or three working days, and won’t pay extra for same-day delivery, he says. Premium delivery requires enormous organizational effort and extra cost.
Despite that cost, Amazon and other large mail-order companies are putting the industry under pressure to speed up, according to Hedde. This explains the Robbie trials, and underlines why robot delivery may perhaps end up being just a pipe dream.
German general workers union Verdi is also sceptical about the idea of delivery robots, pointing to all the fiddly technological issues that could go wrong and the modesty of the savings robots would yield in an industry already defined by low wages and job insecurity. “We don’t think delivery robots will play a big part in shipping goods to customers in the future,†scoffs a spokeswoman.
Once Robbie’s charm has worn off, shoppers may far prefer to have a friendly driver knock at the door.