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Robots on the Road to deliver Swiss packages

 

While Amazon dreams of drones flying packages to your door, the Swiss postal service has moved on to rolling robots that can deliver parcels within about a 5km radius of home. 

The bots may not look very exciting, but they come with a dazzling pedigree: they're made by a company called Starship Technologies, headed by Skype co-founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis. They've had street tests in the U.K. and Germany, but Switzerland is going to give them their real road test.

Starting next month (and starting with dummy packages) they'll be sent out in Bern, the Swiss capital; in the nearby town of Koniz, and in Biberist in Soloturn Canton. If all works out well, the robots, which weigh about 30kg including package, will start delivering time-critical packages, including medicines.

The company is fairly sure the robots won't be stolen, by the way. While they operate autonomously, they're on GPS and have cameras, so that human operators can take over if needed. And if it were stolen, the thief would be “in a stupid position afterwards as the robot knows where it is; it’s constantly online, so we know where the robot is and we know where the thief is, and we can even see the thief.”

Photo: robot in London (Starship Technologies)

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