For decades, the primary method of receiving packages deliveries to your home involve a truck and a delivery person physically walking the package to your door. Dispatch, a startup focused on autonomous delivery services, hopes to change that.
Dispatch is currently testing automated delivery by way of its small autonomous vehicle, nicknamed “Carry,” which houses four compartments and can carry up to 100 lbs.
This vehicle isn’t exactly tearing up highways. It travels at a pace similar to that of a walking pedestrian, and takes sidewalks and bike paths instead of roads to get where it’s going.
Currently, it is testing these automated delivery robots at CSU Monterey Bay and Menlo College, in an effort to generate a proof of concept in an environment where a slow-moving automated platform like this is perfectly suited to meet people’s needs.
College campuses regularly receive mail for students housed in dorms scattered around campus, and delivering these packages on foot takes a lot of manpower and time. By delegating these tasks to “Carry,” colleges and universities stand to save money and provide a useful service to their students and faculty.
So, what makes Dispatch more interesting than a traditional delivery service? Its vehicles are available for on-demand deliveries of virtually any kind of product, as long as it doesn’t exceed its weight and size capacity. So, if you want to get your laundry delivered, lunch, or even your package from the mail office, a Dispatch delivery vehicle is just a few taps away with its mobile app.
Get the door…it’s Dispatch!
Receiving your package is just as simple. There is a console on top of the unit that verifies who you are and gives you access to only the compartment(s) with your package inside.
Dispatch recently raised $2 million in seed funding in order to further develop its delivery system, as well as eventually expand it into a larger, more widely-available service.
And it’s not alone. Other major brands including Amazon and Google are working on their own autonomous delivery solutions.
So, it may be just a matter of years before your online purchases, food deliveries, and even that hammer you loaned the guy down the block is delivered to your door by robot.
