Starship Technologies shifts robot focus from campuses to urban grocery delivery

Starship Technologies is transitioning its autonomous delivery robot operations away from U.S. college campuses to focus on the grocery retail sector in urban environments. At the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), the company’s delivery robots, known as ‘Tobors,’ will be removed before the upcoming academic year.

Company officials stated that the campus deployments served to build operational confidence and prove the technology. Having completed over 10 million deliveries across approximately 70 campuses, the company now aims to scale its services in cities across the U.S. and Europe, where it sees greater market value and profit potential in grocery and hot food delivery.

In the United Kingdom, the company has also ended its pilot program in Sheffield. While the company noted incidents of vandalism involving the robots and their infrastructure, officials characterized the pause in service as a commercial decision marking the natural conclusion of the pilot phase.