1 Million Robotic Deliveries

The last mile is a major focus for enterprising companies these days. The idea of automating a warehouse is one thing. However, many companies are trying to figure out ways to automate the delivery process to people's homes.

Amazon is toying around with drone delivery. Autonomous vehicles might alter how vans are used to deliver ala UPS or FedEx.


Source

Starship is a company that took things in a different direction. A few years ago, the company started sending out automated delivery bots in certain cities. The idea was to place the items in the compartment of the bot and have it delivery to the end location. This cut out the need for delivery people.

The company targeted colleges as the primary market for their service. After all, offering 24/7 delivery ideally suits hard studying (or partying) college kids. Ordering late night food is a common event in university dormatories.

Recently, the company announced it completed its 1 millionth delivery. This is quite a feat for something that was started just a short time ago.

As we can see from the above chart, the pace of increase is amazing. If these keeps up, they will be announcing their 10 millionth delivery in just a few years.

Automation is becoming a larger part of our lives. These systems that are now being implemented are early in their life cycle. As technology advances, we are going to see a lot more of development in this area.

With increased innovation, we will likely see rapid acceptance of the services. Consider all the packages delivered each day to people's homes. It is not unrealistic to ponder how this all could be automated within 507 years.

COVID-19 put even greater emphasis in this area. People are now scared to interact with others. This means the robotics industry saw a huge increase in interest. Companies like Starship will do well over the next few years as the pandemic situation carries on , at least in terms of the residual impact.

Of course, this starts to bring up the question about jobs. If delivery people are being phased out, what are they going to do? This is a question that was danced around for a number of years. Post-COVID, it is unlikely we will see robust job growth. Companies are now realizing they can do more with less people.

Automation was always a threat to jobs, suppressing wages. Now it is no longer a threat, it is actually happening.

We are going to see how this all unfolds. However, it is safe to say that more Starship robots will be on the streets (sidewalks) by the end of this year. The company is looking at growing by 50% this year.

This is the future unfolding right before our eyes.


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Automation was always a threat to jobs, suppressing wages. Now it is no longer a threat, it is actually happening.

I guess it is still a threat to developing countries . Only the western countries may accept it in near future but it will take a lot of time for other countries to go for it .

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I heard Hanson Robotics is doing a humanoid bot rollout. My notion is let them have the jobs. Most of these mundane tasks should be automated. And if you ask most of the people in these professions they would agree.

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That is true except most people in those professions need the job. They certainly arent working in those fields for the love of the profession.

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Letter carriers
Ups
Fedex
food delivery

Adds up to lots of jobs lost just right there.

It's really gonna be like star wars with the little rc bot riding around and cp30 types cruising down the street

Then the droids get "robbed" so they start equipping them with lasers

Then:

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I think the government will try to prop up the system. In some of the Asian countries, some people's job is to dig a hole and then fill it up afterwards. They want to keep people busy so people do not think about it. The problem is it won't last and eventually the system will break. I think UBI is probably going to happen soon to prop up the system but I don't think it will last.

In addition, the total loss of businesses is putting a huge burden on the governments. They are trying to patch it up by printing money and by trying to put larger taxes, but this loss of revenue will cause them to pull back on jobs.

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Yeah Bernie posed the "Guaranteed Jobs" idea which, to me, made little sense. Why create a job that serves no purpose. Just send them the damn check if that is the case.

It will be interesting to see how governments deal with this. This system is going to be top heavy unless they can somehow spread the production of automation around. Thus far, that is not being done.

Politicians will be too late to the game like always.

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I believe the reason why is to distract people from thinking about the problems they are not solving. If people are busy doing a job with no purpose, then that will give something to distract them from their own shortcomings as they rip off the American public.

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That is true. We are really seeing what they are made of these days.

Nothing productive really comes from them.

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Companies are now realizing they can do more with less people.

This has always been the desire of all companies and the fear of workers. Reducing staff costs.

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One million deliveries and no people involved in the transport wow that is quite a lot if it weren't for the lack of staff.
10 million will be around the corner and today that in some cities the traffic has decreased, that is a great feat, in fact here the traffic has increased.
Well, starship will do well, where I buy shares of them that I know is a good purchase option at this time,
Listen, and if there will be a massive loss of jobs and the most affected, as always, we will be the least favored, and I am sure that a sector where there is room to grow is agriculture, as it has been demonstrated by verifying that although we are locked up we always need food, although with drones and all that anything can change.
Thanks for the thought.

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I am not sure if they are a public company.

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If that is a great investment that will reach the sky if things continue in this way as they are because it is seen that the Covid is not going to give way so quickly we will have it here all of 2021, and the vaccines come but there are between 40 to 10% chance they won't work so that leaves a long way to go for this fledgling industry.

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Funny, I just lost my job at a LAST MILE beverage delivery service, working in logistics. They fired my entire branch, including the management level. All because a) they are merging with the competition, who already has much more automation (a robot is literally doing my job now) and b) because my branch was the only one in the entire country that created a union because of borderline legal practices, that abused the workers on countless levels. Now I am looking for another low payment job to work for my rent, my food and my social security (which is mandatory here). I will certainly not touch my cryptos!

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It is a story that is happening repeatedly. Sadly, few are aware of what is going on outside those affected.

You are one of the few who says you lost the job to, at least in part, to automation. Most dont realize it. They just believe they were let go due to a company going out of business or a merger.

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I must admit I am amazed every time i travel around the world as I see new things. Last time it was the automated vehicles at Heathrow that left me open mouthed. When you live in a third world country you start to appreciate these things more as they are so far off it is unbelievable. What you are seeing will take another 10 years if not longer to hit Africa. They don't even have enough electricity for normal consumption and now you are talking vehicles and robots.

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The energy system in Africa requires major upgrading. Technology will have to step in and advance it. That continent will have a huge thirst for energy in the near future.

Too bad corruption is keeping it held back.

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You know, it's funny how people think. They want fast, cheap or free delivery, if possible. During covid robots came in handy as they can't get infected and don't get sick.

The charts says there's a demand for these services, things are going well, there's a chance to reduce costs and delivery time, stop virus spreading and protect people from getting infected, yet there are those who are always complaining about companies reducing costs by replacing humans with robots.

I guess some people are never satisfied. They only feel good if they can complain.

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i was reading the article and i was thinking....where is SKYNET ...where is SKYNET...the post is informative but entertaining at the same time....it is really scary the idea robots take control but as you say we are living it...
...just think how much far ahead of its Era was Terminator the movie when it first released back in 1984!!

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Perhaps the reason why we have these negative, fear-based view of AI is because of Hollywood and Sci-Fi movies/novels.

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Wow, that's a really familiar picture to me. Again another great Estonian start-up 😃

I was actually there in the beggining phases when these robots first appeared the steets here in Tallinn. It looked like something out of a scifi movie, but then in a few weeks I was working there, seeing how these robots work and drive. In the short amount of time there I saw massive improvements in the behaviour of the robots. I thought, this is a bit like Tesla Autonomous driving, but for delivery. Sadly it's not possible for the average person yet to invest in them, atleast as far as I know.

There was one scary aspect also, the AI is supposed to drive the robot (sometimes the human can also take the control over for more risky moments), but this was not that, and the robot seemed to really think on it's own or act a bit like it had some sort of consciousness. 😅 Maybe the AI will take over the world after all? 🤔

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Terrific viewpoint. Thanks for giving us that insight in the beginning stages of this project.

AI is going forward at a crazy pace and people trying to think about it in a limited way, are missing what is taking place. There are some AI systems that are getting a lot "smarter".

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Technology is too advanced for society currently. We have the technology to automate low skilled jobs, but society doesn't have the means to offer another job, or education.

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I loved reading this article, there really are many challenges today at the educational level, because surely these robots will have flaws, they were created by humans at some point in the process have to intervene.

What causes me some anguish is that most of the society is not preparing for these changes, before the mail deliverers were very important, then they stopped being so necessary and new professions were born.

In the city where I live due to Covid-19 several startups dedicated to delivery emerged, it is interesting to see how the world is changing. I loved your article, I will visit your blog more often.

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I'm a bit surprised this is actually working. Not for the use case or the value of it but more about letting those very expensive things roaming around without protection.
I pretty sure this could never be rolled out in some countries because would just break/steal it for various reasons.
Do you know how they can ensure not losing their equipment and parcels ?

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