Robots with reindeer antlers are now on the road delivering food for Uber Eats.
The suspiciously-cute boxes on wheels will be packed with pad thai, smash burgers and wraps, and sent out to addresses around Leeds from today.
They do this already in countries including Japan and the US, but it’s the first time they’re doing so for Uber Eats in Europe.
As well as bringing you a kebab, the robots are happy to sing a song upon arrival, but you won’t be forced to accept them: for now at least, customers will be able to select their preference between a human and an automated Rudolf.
Which would you prefer to bring your McDonalds?
Lisa Johnston, the vice president of Starship Technologies which makes the robots, told Metro the robots are popular in cities where they already deliver groceries, including Milton Keynes, Cambridge, and Leeds.
‘People like the robots, they’re cute,’ she said. ‘You get the odd incident here or there where somebody messes with the robot, especially near university campuses. But it’s so much less than you think.
‘People treat them like pets or toddlers the way they look after them.’
You might assume it would be irresistible to hitch a ride on one of the robots after a few drinks, but this will not work, as the robots will just stop until the interloper removes themselves.
Their food compartments are also locked, so nobody will be swiping a curry while it trundles along.
For the moment, there will only be 15 robots in the Uber Eats fleet for Leeds, but with the speed of the robot revolution so far, you can bet on soon seeing them, or something similar, in a city near you.
We visited Leeds earlier this year to see the trial of a Great Dane-sized robotic dog delivering parcels for Evri, and residents told how they were already quite used to seeing the Starship robots working for Co-op.
Ms Johnston told Metro: ‘They can travel for up to 18 hours on one charge, but I don’t think anybody wants to wait that long to get their Uber Eats delivered – it might take a little while to get there.
‘They’re super efficient on energy and can go for a long time, but we’ve set the delivery radius at 2km.’
For now, the rollout is limited to the Headingley, Burley and Hyde Park areas of the city.
While the exact businesses participating so far have not been revealed, Uber Eats said smash burgers, greek wraps, Pad Thai and chocolate chip cookie dough were among the most ordered dishes in Leeds this year.
Mark Burnard, Co-owner of Jino’s Thai Cafe in Leeds, said he was ‘incredibly excited’ to be one of the first restaurants using the technology as it was ‘another exciting new adventure in the twenty years we’ve been running our restaurant’.
Saving the world one takeaway at a time?
The battery-powered robots mainly travel on pavements, so Starship say this means they help reduce local traffic congestion and emissions.
With the average delivery using the energy taken to boil a kettle for a cup of tea, they say the robots have saved over 700 tonnes of CO2 entering the atmosphere in Europe so far.
They navigate automously and can climb kerbs, though there is always a human on hand to takeover the controls if needed.
While you may not have seen them yet, they have already completed over 9 million deliveries globally, and cross 125,000 roads every day around the world.
The robots are also quite used to adverse weather, and have a special mode for snow, which is fitting, given their seasonal reindeer livery.
Saskia de Jongh, EMEA General Manager at Uber, said: ‘It’s brilliant to see autonomous innovation supporting one of our busiest times of year.
‘It’s so exciting that our new global partnership with Starship Technologies will first launch in Leeds, meaning we can offer local customers a fast new way to get what they need delivered – whether that’s a piping hot Pad Thai or party food essentials.’
Jonathan Pryor, Deputy Leader and Councillor for Headingley and Hyde Park, said: ‘The robots have been really popular in other parts of Leeds and have proven that we can reduce short car journeys and carbon emissions by embracing innovation. I’m really proud that Leeds is leading the way and that Uber Eats has chosen the city as its first European robot venture.’
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