Delivery robots are a thing now and they have been making successful trips until they weren’t. The British history professor Matthew McCormack made quite a funny discovery during his morning bike ride when he witnessed a six-wheeled delivery robot, driven by its lonesome self along a forested path. It seemed helpless and it was funny in a way as though the machine was autonomous; it still couldn’t realize how tremendously wrong it was in following the path.
We still don’t know which company it belonged to. It was found in Northampton in the UK; the robot was likely built by Starship Technologies which is a successful brand of robotics.
It was not the first one to be lost. Some were found stuck on curbs and some had a tragic end underneath freight trains.
In another domain, robot vacuums have also been lost. A vacuum narrowly escaped a Travelodge hotel in Cambridge, UK, back in January. Another one got so lost that its owner distributed “missing” posters.
More lost robots are expected to be seen in the future. The use of the tech skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing cities, particularly in China, with ways to make deliveries without spreading germs.
Starship raised $100 million in March alone which shows that investors are intrigued by this technology.
