MILTON KEYNES, England (Reuters) – A fleet of robotics on wheels that deliver shopping in the English town of Milton Keynes have seen their appeal surge as locals are stuck inside your home due to the coronavirus lockdown.
The robotics, which turn up approximately to a grownup’s knee height and look like smooth white plastic boxes mounted on six black wheels, are a familiar sight in the town, where they have been providing groceries for over two years.
But since the federal government enforced strict social distancing procedures on March 23, the gadgets have been busier than ever, delivering for free to National Health Service (NHS) personnel and dealing with increased need from the general public.
” Right now we are providing totally free shipment to all NHS employees within the neighborhood. We want to make life a bit easier for these individuals in these really, extremely difficult times,” stated Henry Harris-Burland, of Starship, the business that makes the robotics.
” Great deals of them are doing … 80- hour weeks and they don’t have time to go to the local grocery store, so they use our robotics for their shopping,” he said. “We’re honoured that we can be part of that solution.”
The robotics have what appears like an antenna, topped with a little red flag to make it easier to spot them as they do their rounds. They are big enough to hold several bags of shopping as well as a pack of bottles.
Starship has doubled its fleet of shipment robots in Milton Keynes to 70 in the previous three weeks. Harris-Burland stated they had completed 100,000 self-governing deliveries in the town.
” Lots of the citizens have actually been connecting to us online asking us to provide into their area,” he said.
” We’re doing everything we can as quickly as possible to broaden to provide this service to more people, specifically at this actually essential time.”
Reporting by Will Russell; writing by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Stephen Addison
