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How one university changed overnight when it let 25 semiautonomous robots roam its campus
Innovations
How one university changed overnight when it let 25 semiautonomous robots roam its campus
By Peter Holley
January 25 at 9:50 AM
The little white robot on wheels began its journey outside Blaze Pizza. ... Hanging a quick right, the machine rolled past groups of hurried students, over sidewalk cracks and twigs, down a ramp, up a hill, and across a two-lane street — pausing briefly to “look” for cars. ... Fifteen minutes after departing, the robot arrived outside Commonwealth Hall, a freshman dorm on the northwest side of the George Mason University campus, where Shamor Williams was waiting. The hungry 19-year-old had never ordered lunch from a robot before, but the Internet technology major operated like a pro. Casually opening the device’s lid with his smartphone, he removed a 10-inch cheese pizza, pausing only to reflect upon his novel encounter with a semiautonomous machine when asked.
“It’s technology. It’s really simple,” he said, shrugging matter-of-factly as a 68-year-old professor, wide-eyed and smiling, stopped to marvel a few feet away. ... "Thank you! Have a nice day!” the robot cheerfully exclaimed before rolling away.
[George Mason students have a new dining option: Food delivered by robots]
It’s hard to say how a fleet of robots suddenly appearing on a college campus may have been received five or 10 years ago. But in 2019 — when robots are piloting vehicles, tending bars, baking bread and prowling grocery stores — the arrival of 25 Igloo cooler-sized delivery robots elicits curious glances and smiles from most students but little else. (To be fair, occasional robot head-patting and photo-taking was witnessed.)
That isn’t to suggest the machines — created by the Bay Area start-up Starship Technologies — went unnoticed. Quite the opposite. ... During their first day in operation Tuesday, the demand for robotic delivery services from four campus dining establishments was so great during dinner hours that school officials had to pull the plug, shutting off orders so that robots weren’t operating late into the night, far behind schedule. ... “We got hammered,” Ryan Tuohy, senior vice president for business development at Starship Technologies, said a day later.
....
Peter Holley is a technology reporter at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2014, he was a features writer at the Houston Chronicle and a crime reporter at the San Antonio Express-News. Follow https://twitter.com/peterjholley
How one university changed overnight when it let 25 semiautonomous robots roam its campus
By Peter Holley
January 25 at 9:50 AM
The little white robot on wheels began its journey outside Blaze Pizza. ... Hanging a quick right, the machine rolled past groups of hurried students, over sidewalk cracks and twigs, down a ramp, up a hill, and across a two-lane street — pausing briefly to “look” for cars. ... Fifteen minutes after departing, the robot arrived outside Commonwealth Hall, a freshman dorm on the northwest side of the George Mason University campus, where Shamor Williams was waiting. The hungry 19-year-old had never ordered lunch from a robot before, but the Internet technology major operated like a pro. Casually opening the device’s lid with his smartphone, he removed a 10-inch cheese pizza, pausing only to reflect upon his novel encounter with a semiautonomous machine when asked.
“It’s technology. It’s really simple,” he said, shrugging matter-of-factly as a 68-year-old professor, wide-eyed and smiling, stopped to marvel a few feet away. ... "Thank you! Have a nice day!” the robot cheerfully exclaimed before rolling away.
[George Mason students have a new dining option: Food delivered by robots]
It’s hard to say how a fleet of robots suddenly appearing on a college campus may have been received five or 10 years ago. But in 2019 — when robots are piloting vehicles, tending bars, baking bread and prowling grocery stores — the arrival of 25 Igloo cooler-sized delivery robots elicits curious glances and smiles from most students but little else. (To be fair, occasional robot head-patting and photo-taking was witnessed.)
That isn’t to suggest the machines — created by the Bay Area start-up Starship Technologies — went unnoticed. Quite the opposite. ... During their first day in operation Tuesday, the demand for robotic delivery services from four campus dining establishments was so great during dinner hours that school officials had to pull the plug, shutting off orders so that robots weren’t operating late into the night, far behind schedule. ... “We got hammered,” Ryan Tuohy, senior vice president for business development at Starship Technologies, said a day later.
....
Peter Holley is a technology reporter at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2014, he was a features writer at the Houston Chronicle and a crime reporter at the San Antonio Express-News. Follow https://twitter.com/peterjholley
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