<h2>Home Alone</h2>
Ford and Walmart are looking out for introverts who don&#8217;t want to go shopping in public or deal with delivery drivers.
On Wednesday, the two companies <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ford-motor-selfdriving-walmart/ford-walmart-to-collaborate-on-designing-automated-vehicle-delivery-idUSKCN1NJ1GE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that they were teaming up with delivery service Postmates to develop a service in which self-driving cars transport Walmart goods right to customers&#8217; homes — saving them from ever having to leave their houses or interact with another human being.
<h2>Welcome to Miami</h2>
The pilot program will take place in Miami, and initially it won&#8217;t involve any autonomous vehicles (AVs) at all.
According to a <a href="https://medium.com/self-driven/ford-walmart-and-postmates-team-up-for-self-driving-goods-delivery-e627a2c398ea" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blog post</a> by Brian Wolf, an executive at Ford’s autonomous vehicle unit, human drivers will use &#8220;research vehicles&#8221; designed to mimic AVs to complete the deliveries. As they go, they&#8217;ll gather information about customer preferences. Eventually, though, Ford plans to replace those human-driven vehicles with AVs.
No word on when such a goods-delivering service might launch on a wider scale, but Ford has said it plans to have commercial AVs <a href="https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/10/ford-to-test-driverless-cars-in-washington-dc-ahead-of-2021-launch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ready by 2021</a>.
<h2>Delivering the Future</h2>
This is far from the only AV-powered delivery project <a href="https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/06/kroger-will-use-autonomous-vehicles-to-deliver-groceries-this-fall/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in the works</a>, but Ford, Walmart, and Postmates are three of the biggest players in their respective industries, so the partnership does have the potential to play a major role in shaping the future of such services — which, at this point, seem almost inevitable.
Now if they could only figure out a way for the AVs to put the groceries away, too.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ford-motor-selfdriving-walmart/ford-walmart-to-collaborate-on-designing-automated-vehicle-delivery-idUSKCN1NJ1GE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ford, Walmart to Collaborate on Designing Automated-Vehicle Delivery</a> [Reuters]
More on Ford&#8217;s AVs: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/autonomous-vehicles-washington-dc-ford" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ford&#8217;s Self-Driving Cars Are About to Chauffeur Your Senator</a>

Place an order online, and an AV would bring it right to your home.

Ford and Walmart want self-driving cars to deliver your groceries

Special Delivery

Ford, Walmart, and Postmates have teamed up to develop a service in which self-driving cars deliver goods right to customers homes.

Ford and Walmart Want Self-Driving Cars to Deliver Your Groceries

You might never need to leave your house again.

Boston Dynamics’ robots are performing human tasks out in the field. They could be adapted to create a more efficient future.

Robots & Machines

Boston Dynamics' robots are performing human tasks out in the field. They could be adapted to create a more efficient future.

Boston Dynamics’ SpotMini Could Deliver Your Next Package

WORK FOR YOURSELF (BUT REALLY FOR AMAZON). Amazon is looking for a partner. Well, more accurately, lots of little partners.
On Thursday, Amazon launched its <a href="https://logistics.amazon.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Delivery Service Partner (DSP) program</a>, which will encourage entrepreneurs to start small Amazon delivery companies. Each entrepreneur will oversee 40 to 100 employees who will use 20 to 40 Amazon-branded vans to deliver packages year-round, using Amazon&#8217;s own logistics systems to facilitate the process. Start-up costs for a DSP business are as low as $10,000, and military veterans can apply to have their start-up costs reimbursed. Amazon claims DSP companies can produce annual profits as high as $300,000.
MO&#8217; PACKAGES. MO&#8217; PROBLEMS. Right now, UPS, FedEx, and the U.S. Postal Service deliver most of Amazon&#8217;s packages. But Amazon will need a lot more delivered, and soon. People familiar with the matter <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-drives-deeper-into-package-delivery-1530158460?mod=hp_lead_pos4&amp;mod=djem10point" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The Wall Street Journal</a> that established delivery companies simply can&#8217;t keep up with Amazon&#8217;s projected growth.
This has led the e-retailer to start looking inward for a solution to its delivery problem, first through <a href="https://flex.amazon.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amazon Flex</a>, which allows drivers to use their own vehicles to deliver packages — think Uber or Lyft, but with packages instead of people — and now with the DSP program.
WIN/WIN/WIN? On paper, the DPS program seems like it could benefit Amazon, Amazon&#8217;s customers, and American workers. According to Amazon, the program won&#8217;t take work away from existing delivery companies (&#8220;There’s so much growth here in parcel delivery that there’s more than enough for everybody,” Amazon’s senior vice president of world-wide operations Dave Clark told The WSJ).
It could also improve Amazon&#8217;s relationship with customers. In 2013, customers who expected to receive Amazon packages in time for Christmas found themselves disappointed when both <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/amazon-ups-offer-refunds-for-christmas-delivery-problems/2013/12/26/c9570254-6e44-11e3-a523-fe73f0ff6b8d_story.html?noredirect=on&amp;utm_term=.f47ff1a5389d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UPS and FedEx missed delivery deadlines</a>. Amazon ended up offering refunds to customers — a situation it would no doubt like to avoid in the future. The DPS program also has the potential to create <a href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&amp;p=irol-newsArticle&amp;ID=2356310" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;tens of thousands&#8221; of jobs</a>. Let&#8217;s just hope Amazon delivery drivers are treated better than <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-warehouse-workers-share-their-horror-stories-2018-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amazon warehouse workers</a>.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-drives-deeper-into-package-delivery-1530158460?mod=hp_lead_pos4&amp;mod=djem10point" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amazon Drives Deeper Into Package Delivery</a> [The Wall Street Journal]

UPS, FedEx, and the Postal Service are no longer enough to deliver all of our Amazon purchases.

Amazon needs more delivery companies and wants you to start them

Future Society

A new Amazon delivery service allows entrepreneurs to start their own delivery companies of 40 to 100 workers using Amazon-branded vans.

The Digest: Amazon Wants You to Use Its Vans to Deliver Packages

For $10,000, you can start your own company that delivers packages exclusively for Amazon.

The Digest: Amazon Needs More Delivery Companies and Wants You to Start Them

Our lives are filled with other humans. We interact with them constantly — at work, at home, at stores where we buy what we need to sustain ourselves, even the delivery people we have digitally summoned to bring us goods when we don&#8217;t want to face the world. Sure, we need community to survive or whatever, but sometimes you just want to take a break from other humans.
San Francisco-based Starship Technologies wants to remove any human interaction, at least from the process of buying lunch. The company is <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/article/starship-technologies-robots-deliveries-intuit-compass-test">expanding its fleet of autonomous robots</a> to include tiny robots that deliver your lunch for you, Wired reports. The company is ready to start offering the service to other companies as well after testing it at a California-based company campus.
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-130229" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2018/04/128_starshipintuit-1.jpg" alt="" width="810" height="540" />
The little Starship troopers are about the size of a middle-aged Saint Bernard, have six little wheels, and move at a maximum speed of 4 miles per hour (6.4 km/h).
To use the bots, users enter their order into an app. The restaurant making the food puts it inside the little robot, which makes its way across campus. The bots only stay outside, so users have to come to the entrance of a building, where they unlock the robot&#8217;s container by entering a unique code. Delivery usually takes between 15 and 30 minutes.
Since January, the little robots have been serving a whole campus of hungry workers at the Silicon Valley-based software company Intuit, and the company is planning to deploy more than 1,000 robots to colleges and workplaces by the end of the year. Starship calls this the first <a href="https://www.starship.xyz/press_releases/2708/">“major commercial rollout”</a> of its kind.
<iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LCy7DIjSgv0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
It&#8217;s easy to see why this may be popular with users — no human interaction at all, even if they still have to get up and go to the door to retrieve their sustenance. On-demand delivery startups such as Seamless and Uber Eats have turned the food delivery industry <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/04/24/restaurants-struggle-adapt-food-delivery-boon/487605002/">into a booming market</a>. Anyone with a bike or a Honda Civic can make a few bucks on the side by delivering food.
And for people with mobility issues, services like these could be a godsend. “It didn’t take long after injuring my foot to fully appreciate the capabilities of Starship’s campus delivery,” says Srivathsan Canchi, a Product Lead at Intuit, <a href="https://www.starship.xyz/press_releases/2708/">in the press release</a>. “I love that I was able to get my coffee delivered to my doorstep!
But not everyone has been so enthusiastic about the bots&#8217; predecessors. Sidewalk-based delivery robots have been a <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2017/12/07/san-francisco-restricts-delivery-robots/?guccounter=1">controversial topic</a> for cities like San Francisco in the past. They are often unwieldy, take up a large portion of a busy sidewalk, or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yotkHS5JDvc">simply get stuck</a>. Late last year, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/san-francisco-just-put-the-brakes-on-delivery-robots/">ruled</a> that robots weren&#8217;t allowed to make actual deliveries, after complaints filed by pedestrian safety advocacy groups. In other places, such as Washington D.C., Virginia, and Idaho, sidewalk robots <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/10/san-francisco-delivery-robots-laws">are being legalized</a>.
Human couriers, whether they&#8217;re on a bike or in a car, are already <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/doordash-delivery-robots-starship-technologies-2017-3">being replaced by robots</a>, and if Starship&#8217;s efforts are any indication, in-person deliveries are about to become a lot more rare, though they could arguably better serve people with mobility issues because the human could bring the goods right to them. And those users will almost certainly be in the minority.
Our sidewalks are already crowded. Fitting in a few more six-wheeled friends is pretty much guaranteed to become a sore point for many city-dwellers. For the average person looking for a break from human interaction, maybe you&#8217;d be better off just renting a cabin in the woods for a little while.

There's technology for saving lives and for saving the planet. Now there's one just for when you're feeling lazy.

Tiny robots will deliver your lunch, because we hate human interaction

Sci-Fi Visions

A California-based robotics company is about to launch its first major, commercial roll out of food delivery robots. But why do we need them?

Tiny Robots Will Deliver Your Lunch, Because We Hate Human Interaction

This company is convinced we need food delivery robots.

For More Efficient Package Delivery, UPS Turns to Drones

If you like your robots leggy, Cassie’s the one for you.

If you like your robots leggy, Cassie's the one for you.

Cassie the Robot Walks Just Like Humans Do

Blood-delivering drones are saving lives in Rwanda.

Artificial Intelligence

These Drones Cut a Four-Hour Blood Delivery Into a 15-Minute One

Google&#8217;s parent company Alphabet Inc. is teaming up with Chipotle Mexican Grill to drop (what&#8217;s basically) airborne burrito bombs from the sky via drones. No, seriously.
The duo hopes to bring food to the doors of hungry Virginia Tech college students. ETA: This month—<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-08/burrito-by-drone-coming-to-campus-in-test-of-alphabet-s-delivery">according to reports from Bloomberg.</a>
<figure style="width: 783px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/09/1x-1-1.jpg" alt="A Project Wing aircraft lowering a package to the ground during recent testing. - Bloomberg" width="783" height="380" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A Project Wing aircraft lowering a package to the ground during recent testing. &#8211; Bloomberg</figcaption></figure>
With the goal of redefining the meaning of &#8216;fast&#8217; food, Alphabet&#8217;s experimental Project Wing drones, will begin trials this month to test everything from their drone&#8217;s navigation systems to customer satisfaction.
&#8220;It’s the first time that we’re actually out there delivering stuff to people who want that stuff,” said Dave Vos, who heads Project Wing, in the Bloomberg interview.
In delivering the food, the drones will hover over the customers while using a winch to lower the food. Don&#8217;t worry about tech difficulties, though. Human backup should be ready to take-over if something goes awry—as per US FAA regulations.
The experiment will last for a couple of weeks, with part of it testing how well the drones will retain the food&#8217;s heat because, honestly, who would even be interested in a cold burrito?
A final reminder for the students, though! Be ready with your shields, as US FAA regulations don’t allow drones to fly over people. No shield = no burrito—and that&#8217;s sad.

Alphabet Inc. is teaming up with Chipotle Mexican Grill in order to deliver burritos to the doors of hungry Virginia Tech college students—drone-style—under the US FAA's new commercial guidelines.

Chipotle Once Delivered Burritos to Hungry College Students...Via Drone

It's a bird! It's a plane! No! It's a burrito!

Chipotle Once Delivered Burritos to Hungry College Students…Via Drone

Currently, companies left and right are developing a number of <a href="https://futurism.com/university-florida-holds-first-drone-race-using-mind-control/">applications for drones</a> in our daily lives. Perhaps most notable are the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8037720011">ones that can deliver</a> goods right to our doorsteps.
It might seem rather commonplace that these drones may one day bring your dinner, groceries, or mail packages to you, but how it will give it to you is another matter. To that end, Google has something rather interesting in the works.
<figure class="wp-caption" style="width: auto; height: auto;"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/05/c_cvLAfFuPEDDJPjK_OcCv9s_xiXwMof8yFzctx9nMk.jpg" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The delivery drone telling signaling a person to step back. Credit: US Patent and Trademark Office</figcaption></figure>
On April 25, Google was awarded a <a href="http://www.uspto.gov/">patent</a> for a delivery drone that&#8217;s automated, and can drop off packages without the need to land by using a tether cable. However, that is just the beginning. The highlight of this drone (if it goes into production) is that it can talk to people, tell them to take a step back away from a package being tethered down, and notify when a delivery is complete.
It also makes use of warning lights that change color (red, yellow, or green) apart from the talking capability.
Who knows, perhaps Google&#8217;s vision of <a href="https://futurism.com/googles-robo-dog-spot-starts-training-us-marines/">humans and robots</a> interacting isn&#8217;t too far away.

On April 25, Google was awarded a patent for a delivery drone that can talk It is capable of calling out to the receiver and telling people to step back as it drops a package.

Google’s Future Delivery Drone Might Just Talk to You

Soon, drones might be doing more than just delivering packages. They may be talking to us. 

Fleets of autonomous, unmanned vehicles will be capable of working 24 hours a day.

/Delivery

Special Delivery

Ford and Walmart Want Self-Driving Cars to Deliver Your Groceries

Robots & Machines

Boston Dynamics’ SpotMini Could Deliver Your Next Package

Future Society

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Sci-Fi Visions

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Future Society

For More Efficient Package Delivery, UPS Turns to Drones

Robots & Machines

Cassie the Robot Walks Just Like Humans Do

Artificial Intelligence

These Drones Cut a Four-Hour Blood Delivery Into a 15-Minute One

Artificial Intelligence

Chipotle Once Delivered Burritos to Hungry College Students…Via Drone

Artificial Intelligence

Google’s Future Delivery Drone Might Just Talk to You

Future Society

Switzerland’s Planning An Underground Freight System

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