“Essentially
what we’re trying to do is build autonomous delivery infrastructure”
Dispatch co-founder
Uriah Baalke in an interview with Fortune Magazine
Self
driving delivery vehicles are now a trend worth watching.
On
Wednesday April 6th 2016, Dispatch, a start-up that makes autonomous
delivery vehicles, received US$2 million from venture capitalist Andreessen
Horowitz as reported in the article “Self-Driving
Delivery Robots Are Coming To A Sidewalk Near You”, published April 6,
2016, by Brian Solomon, Forbes.
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The
company was founded by Uriah Baalke, Stav Braun and Sonia Jin who had
previously worked together at Floored, a real estate software in New York City.
Their company is the result of a HAX hardware accelerator program in San
Francisco since November 2015.
Behold,
their latest creation, more proof that robots are coming to take our jobs in
the Delivery and Postal world, after they’ve overtaken banking as I'd predicted
in my blog
article entitled “How
Citibank predicts 30% of banking jobs use robots as smartphones and Mobile
Money spread”.
So
how does this particular robot plan to take away your delivery job?
Dispatch's Carry Robot
- Why stealing this three wheeled deliver robot is a bad idea
Their
main product is a robot called Carry, a 0.9 m by 0.9 m (3" by 3")
robot that weights 68 kg (150 lb) that can transport up to 45.35 kg (100 lb)
worth of items in its four (4) internal compartments. It’s currently being
tested at two college campuses–Menlo College and Cal State Monterey Bay. It can
operate for 12 hours on a single charge and travels at a maximum speed of 4
km/h.
Dispatch's
Carry robot vehicles uses GPS, LIDAR and a sophisticated Camera system coupled
with AI (Artificial Intelligence) to sense its environment and avoid obstacles
as noted in “Why
your next UPS driver might be an ugly robot on wheels”, published April 6,
2016 by Max Taves, CNET.
Customers
can track its location using their smartphone and is unlocked via an app on
their smartphones as well. In case you thinking of stealing this thing, good
luck lifting 68 kg (150 lb) plus 45.35 kg (100 lb) worth of items that has GPS
and five cameras that’ll alert its handles to your location.
Dispatch's Carry the replacement
for the Postal Worker - Why Postal Workers need to beware these wheeled
Warriors
This
product reminds me of the Domino's Robotic Unit, which will soon start
delivering pizza in New Zealand as described in my blog article entitled
“How
Marathon Robotics Dominoes Robotic Unit will replace Pizza Delivery in New
Zealand”.
Dispatch
plans to make money from selling their services to potential clients rather
than selling their robots as pointed out in the article “This Cute
Self-Driving Robot Wants to Deliver Your Food or Laundry”, published APRIL
6, 2016 by Kia Kokalitcheva, Fortune.
Dispatch
envisions a future filled with these robots on predetermined pathways along
sidewalks. Albeit super slow, they have an advantage over drones in that they’re
cheaper, to quote Andreessen Horowitz partner Chris Dixon: “The technology is
at this inflection point potentially where it can work really well. If you
actually study the math of shipping a toothbrush to you, it costs $5 for a
flying drone and just 50 cents on the ground”
That
significant cost differential means autonomous vehicles, not drones, will
probably be the first robots to go commercial in the US of A.
This
may potentially replace postal workers a lot more easily than drones as noted
in my blog article
entitled “SingPost
Postal Package Delivery Drones - Why Postal Corporation of Jamaica Mini-Drone
Airports for Jamaica”
Expect
more competition in the future as other start-ups start springing up like
poppies to catch this low hanging fruit of robotic deliveries.
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