Starship Technologies

A Starship Technologies delivery robot.

Starship Technologies is a company developing small self-driving robotic delivery vehicles. The company is headquartered in London, UK, with engineering operations in Tallinn, Estonia.[1]

History

Starship Technologies was founded in 2014 by Skype cofounders Janus Friis and Ahti Heinla.[1] Ahti Heinla also acts as the CEO and CTO of the company.[2][3] The company's business, sales, marketing and public affairs are managed by COO Allan Martinson. The company's VP of Engineering is Lauri Väin.

According to company COO Allan Martinson, the roots of the team go back to Team Kuukulgur led by Ahti Heinla, and there are similarities to robots.[4]

On 30 August 2016, Starship Technologies received the Golden Computer award for Startup of the Year from the German technology magazine Computer Bild.[5] Starship's Head and Testing of Operations Helen Kaarlep was present to receive the award.[6]

Delivery robots

Starship delivery robot preparing to cross the street.

The electric-powered rovers drive on sidewalks at a pedestrian speed (max 6 km/h), can be remote-controlled if autonomous operation fails, and will only be used for relatively short-range local delivery.[7]

The robots are equipped with a sensor suite that includes cameras, GPS and IMU, possibly also other sensors but notably no LIDAR. The robot will have microphones, and speakers, so they can communicate with humans they meet. Starship Technologies plans to launch pilot services in 2016, in the US and the UK among other countries, with commercial service starting in 2017.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 "About Us". Starship Technologies. 2016. Retrieved 2016-08-30.
  2. ↑ https://www.crunchbase.com/person/ahti-heinla
  3. ↑ "Ahti Heinla - Starship Technologies". Starship Technologies.
  4. ↑ "16. novembri Digitund: Proovime OnePlus X ja Apple TV-d, pikem jutt Allan Martinsoniga Starshipist" [16th of November Digitund: We try out OnePlus X and the Apple TV; along with a longer conversation with Allan Martinson from Starship]. Digitund (in Estonia). Estonia: Raadio1. 2015-11-16.
  5. ↑ Schuldt, Rainer; Brüggen-Freye, Claudia (2016-08-30). "Der Goldene Computer 2016: Das sind die Gewinner!" [The Golden Computer 2016: These are the Winners!] (in German). Computer Bild. Retrieved 2016-08-31.
  6. ↑ Hankewitz, Sten (2016-08-31). "Starship voted the Startup of the Year by a German magazine". Estonian World. Retrieved 2016-08-31.
  7. 1 2 Ivana Kottasova (3 November 2015). "Forget drones, here come delivery robots". CNNMoney.

External links

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