Starship has completed one million autonomous deliveries | Author: Ahti Heinla | Starship Technologies | January 2021 | Medium

Starship meets one million autonomous deliveries

Today I am proud to announce that we have reached one million autonomous shipments, more than 6 years after the company was founded in 2014. We believe that no other company in the world has made many autonomous shipments, including car-driven taxi rides. We also raised an additional $ 17 million and added service to two new campuses: UCLA in the US and Bridgewater State University (Massachusetts). This new investment brings Starship’s total funding to $ 102 million to date.

We weren’t sure where the millionth delivery would take place, as about 15-20 service areas around the world are open because robots make deliveries every minute. It finally happened in Bowling Green, Ohio, to a student named Annika Keeton, who is studying Pre-Health Biology at BGSU. It’s part of Annika Starship’s story now!

Six years ago we didn’t believe we would get a 1 million shipment in January 2021; we’d love to do it sooner! But it is difficult for delivery robots to operate with a high degree of autonomy in many countries, 24/7, making thousands of deliveries a day and millions of miles a year. Luckily, we have an incredibly talented team at Starship, and I thank them for making this milestone achievable. It may have taken us 6 years to reach the first million shipments, but we hope to have the next million in just a few months!

Today we also launched UCLA, one of the largest public schools in the U.S., and we are offering it from restaurants like Blaze Pizza, Bruin Buzz, Lu Valle, and Southern Lights. Bridgewater State University (Massachusetts) campus restaurants are also offering shipping including Starbucks Cafe and Bears Den.

The additional funding comes at a time when there is a growing interest in the autonomous shipping industry. Contactless shipping has proven to be one of the most reliable ways to protect vulnerable populations in the COVID-19 pandemic and enable social distance. We are proud to provide contactless food and food shipments that are such a difficult time for many people. Demand has increased 5 times since the pandemic began in the neighborhoods.

We have continued to see exponential growth since the start of our first commercial distribution service in 2018. Last year, Starship set several new shipping records for the company and expanded to more college campuses, including Arizona State University (ASU), the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) and UC Irvine. In addition to opening the Mountain View (CA) service, we also started shipping in Modesto (CA) with our new partner, The Save Mart Companies.

If you are interested in solving difficult challenges and want to have a positive impact on local communities as well as the environment, we would love to inform you that we are currently hiring for various roles. We expect the Starship team to grow by about 40-50% this year alone. Bring 2021!