make way for robots
Grubhub rolls out autonomous delivery robots at the University of Houston
Unlike freshmen, the robots already know their way around.
It's not just students moving in at the University of Houston's campus this week — a fleet of food delivery robots will be settling in as well.
Through a partnership with Grubhub and Starship Technologies, UH now has fully autonomous delivery robots available for cross-campus food deliveries.
“Coming off of a strong 2023-2024 school year, I’m very proud that we’re continuing to significantly grow our campus footprint and see such strong adoption of our additional services and solutions with our partners," Rob DelaCruz, vice president and general manager of Grubhub Campus, says in a statement. "We see further opportunity in the campus space, and we’re proud to play a role in how students and faculty dine. Our technology allows our partners to operate their dining facilities more efficiently by providing them with the ability to get diners through lines faster and provide a broad range of pickup and delivery innovations.”
Robot-delivered food orders can be placed via the Grubhub app, which also features an interactive map where users can watch as their food traverses campus toward them. Grubhub reports that the robot deliveries also represent a more sustainable food delivery option.
San Francisco-based Starship Technologies previously launched 30 of its robots on the UH campus in 2019. Grubhub and Starship originally teamed up last year with five universities and plans to expand to 25 schools and 2,000 robots. This fall, the organizations have expanded to over 50 schools.
“Grubhub has been an exceptional partner as we expand our reach to more schools and elevate the dining experience for universities nationwide," Chris Neider, vice president of business development at Starship Technologies, adds. Their support and collaboration have been instrumental in our growth, allowing us to deliver innovative and convenient solutions to students and campus communities across the country.”
According to Starship, its zero-emission robots cross roads over 150,000 times a day and have completed nearly seven million commercial deliveries globally, which is reportedly more than any other autonomous delivery provider.
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This article first appeared on our sister site InnovationMap.
