
Starship Robots – Small robots that travel sidewalks for local delivery - jkaljundi
https://www.starship.xyz/
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dfinlay
I would be very excited to receive items from one of these robots. However, I
don't know if I could bring myself to send anything of import. The risk of en
route damage/theft seems really high. The trapping or taunting of them seems
like a surefire activity for children. Their contribution to already congested
pedestrian routes in urban areas seems like a perfect catalyst for sidewalk
rage induced kicks. If they were to commonly transport high value goods, theft
would be a huge issue. A few hours to build a serviceable faraday cage and you
have a drop and lift job that nets significant gains. Not advocated theft, but
it seems a rather obvious risk.

Also, dogs rejoice! You finally have a catchable, chewable mail courier.

Edit: There also seems to be some potential security risks here. Some cities
may not be keen on unmanned, arbitrary payload carrying robots driving through
throngs of pedestrians. They are going to have vet the store operators and
detect if a recipient fills a unit with unexpected items. Maybe that is just
paranoia.

~~~
zensavona
My first thought also - I wonder what kind 'self-defense' mechanisms would be
legal and/or effective.

It says on the website that the robots are monitored by humans , I think a
human voice beaming from the thing saying "Hey, we're recording you messing
with our robot" would be enough to deter 95% of potential attackers.

What about the other 5%?

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dfinlay
As long as the items are low value like groceries, the other 5% probably
wouldn't bother. They might be wise to impose a value or insurable limit, at
least initially.

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tomjacobs
Hey I'm building this too! Doesn't quite look as high tech, but a Kinect + ROS
+ RC car + a basket goes a long way. [https://medium.com/@TomPJacobs/self-
driving-cars-now-in-mini...](https://medium.com/@TomPJacobs/self-driving-cars-
now-in-mini-size-95d450bb98b6)

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bigethan
Very Star Wars.

Seems perfect for deliveries around a large office campus where theft, maps,
and smooth sidewalks are all very manageable. Though I don't know how much
profit is in that market.

~~~
_up
I think as soon as the robot is also able to fill the fridge by itself and
even be cheaper than shopping yourself. It will change the world.

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tehno
Btw, the core team behind this actually participated in the NASA's Sample
Return Robot Challenge[1] two years in a row as Team Kuukulgur, before this
venture.

Nice to see the produced know-how and technology being put to use in everyday-
related product now.

[1]
[http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/centennial_challe...](http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/centennial_challenges/sample_return_robot/index.html)

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waterlesscloud
Obviously useful for large, controlled environments. Large office buildings,
Disneyland tunnels, intra-stadium logistics, movie studios, facilities like
refineries or dams or whatever.

~~~
lifeformed
That's cool, I haven't thought about that. There's already similar ones in
hospitals delivering simple items, I think.

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JDDunn9
I looked into building a similar robot, but couldn't overcome the challenges
of crossing the street. You need some pretty advanced computer vision to
follow stoplights, or worse, roads without stoplights. Stairs are also a
problem. I hope they'll give a blog post detailing how they overcame some of
these obstacles.

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FrojoS
Here is a video from BBC which gives a lot more information
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xkp2J3D-fM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xkp2J3D-fM)

For instance, the founder mentions that the robot is expected to be remote
controlled by a human in about 1% of the conditions which are deemed too
difficult.

Also, they talk about the theft/vandalism problem. Like some here have
speculated, the plan is to use loud speakers to say something like "What are
you doing? The police will be here in 5min and we have you on video."

Personally, I dont know if it will work but anyway I think its a great idea.
Maybe obvious in hindsight, but my mind is still blown when thinking about it.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Might work, if the cargo were somehow locked in. Maybe unlocks when scanned at
the receive site somehow? To discourage casual theft.

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lifeformed
I wonder how the economics work out? What's the cost of owning and maintaining
one of these, versus a human courier on a bike? The page says it can lower
local delivery costs by a factor of 5x-10x, which seems like a lot.

~~~
thrill
Brad Templeton, who is an advisor to the company, estimates these will be used
for deliveries in about thirty minutes and for about one dollar.

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bfwi
As always, the people of HN have found the weaknesses in this product that the
founders haven't thought of at all, and they will surely shut the whole thing
down now.

~~~
bigethan
I'd argue that the product page doesn't sell properly if everyone is freaking
out over possible issues. If they've solved for obvious problems, they should
discuss those solutions a little. Otherwise it's not much more than a fancy
Big Trak.

~~~
bfwi
The landing page is probably just for showing people that they're working on
the product. Very few of the eventual consumers are going to visit the site in
its current form.

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Already__Taken
You have a nicely sized full-height video on the page and cover the top of it
with that dumb sticky header. There's only 1080px of content I can fit on my
screen why steal that with a useless thick color bar. More fool me I suppose
for still browsing the web fullscreen.

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Anchor
There's a team building, it seems, the same thing in partnership with DHL:
[http://www.sidewalkdelivery.co](http://www.sidewalkdelivery.co)

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phreeza
Looks neat in a scifi sort of way, but I am not sure people would be too happy
about having these things running around on already busy sidewalks.

~~~
peteretep
One key advantage of automating this is that it could avoid the busy ones...

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martin-adams
Something like this would work very well in places like hotels, Centre
Parcs[1] or theme parks. However, I think that is a bit niche for what it's
aimed at.

[1]
[http://www.centerparcs.co.uk/villages/index.jsp](http://www.centerparcs.co.uk/villages/index.jsp)

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junto
They want to run pilots in the UK and US next year.

British pavements (sidewalks) have to be the ultimate test!

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lucaspiller
British pavements are a dream, you should come to Italy. Here is the
'pavement' on my walk home (the yellow pole is a bus stop):
[http://i.imgur.com/30ujPfb.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/30ujPfb.jpg)

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imron
> For security, the cargo bay is locked throughout the delivery and can be
> opened only by the recipient via the mobile phone

Or with a crowbar..

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billybilly1920
I watched the video, and it seems all it really does is spins in circles and
turns the headlights on and off.

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peteretep
I wonder which cities have realistically good enough sidewalks/pavements for
this to work consistently.

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JoeAltmaier
Could work inside a campus or industrial center? Maybe in the new Apple
starship juggernaut.

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vld
What about stairs/raised sidewalks?

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zelos
The Daleks figured it out eventually, I'm sure these guys will too.

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HeyLaughingBoy
Seriously? Those things travelled millions of light-years but yet they were
stopped by a flight of stairs.

