Imagine you could have a robot deliver your pizza to your dorm on campus? Well, you do not have to imagine because it is happening right now across US college campuses.

Starship Technologies delivery robots are serving thousands of college students per day. They claim on their website that they are the “world’s leading robot delivery service for university college campuses.” The company was launched in 2014 with a focus on creating their delivery robots.

By October 2021, these cute tiny robots completed 2,000,000 deliveries. Some campuses they serve currently are Arizona State University, University of Mississippi, James Madison University, Purdue University and many more. Maybe as they expand we could see some of their robots around.

Another competing company creating self-driving delivery robots is a company called Yandex Self-Driving Group. This company is involved in the car industry making self-driving cars, so it is no surprise they may dabble in tiny robots.

They claim that they are “the leading online and mobile food-ordering and delivery platform on college campuses”. Yandex has actually partnered with GrubHub, a food delivery app, in order to get their robots to more campuses and have used GrubHub’s existing connections to over 250 US college campuses.

According to the Associate Pressed, these companies that are manufacturing these delivery machines saw an increased demand for them, along with pandemic related shortages in the workforce and a need for contactless deliveries. It made these companies rocket their production to a post-COVID world.

There are a lot of good things about these robots. It would help soften the blow of companies experiencing a shortage in staff, it can help those businesses and it can also make people feel safe as they are ensured a contactless delivery, since there is not even a person. They would not get held up in traffic and struggle to find parking because they can go places cars cannot.

However, there can be a lot of concerns. You cannot exactly tell a robot to ring the doorbell or just leave it on the porch. They are also electronic, like our phones, they need to be recharged. Also, they may not fare well in crowded cities. If people cannot get through traffic and highly-populated places, it might mean robots won’t do well either.

But technologies are getting better everyday, so these problems might not exist soon. These cute, eco-friendly robots just might come to a campus near you.

Do you want regular delivery, or do you want a knee-high, four pizza box-sized robot opening up at a finger press? It might actually be something you have to consider in the future.