Starship Technologies has reported that its self-driving delivery robots have racked up more than 10,000 miles in their first year of testing on public sidewalks.
In a statement sent to Post&Parcel today (19 October), the company said that its robots have “come in contact with more than 1.7m people in 16 countries and 56 cities”. And the results of the tests “show that the overall perception of the robot is neutral to positive, with 70% of people ignoring the robot, unfazed by its existence”.
“Starship’s testing program is one of the most extensive tests of self-driving technologies in the world,” said Ahti Heinla, CEO of Starship. “In our first twelve months of testing, the delivery robots drove roughly the same amount of time as Google’s self-driving cars in their first year.”
Kristjan Korjus, Head of Computer Vision and Perception at Starship, added: “We are analysing terabytes of data each month to develop algorithms for safe and intelligent driving.”
As previously reported by Post&Parcel, Starship Technologies has been working with JustEat, Hermes, Metro Group, Swiss Post, and Mercedes-Benz for delivery initiatives.