FedEx will soon start testing robots that could make same-day deliveries of medicine, pizzas and other items to consumers’ homes, pushing the parcel-delivery giant into a new market competing against startups like Postmates that use humans for rapid deliveries.
The project makes FedEx the latest in a growing stream of companies to test automated, unmanned machines to make deliveries, writes The Wall Street Journal (Feb. 28, 2019). Amazon and UPS have demonstrated drones to deliver packages in certain areas, and Amazon has displayed a rolling robot it calls Scout in trials on city streets. Grocery chain Kroger recently showed off an unmanned vehicle that can deliver groceries in certain markets, and several robotics startups are testing autonomous delivery robots that use sensors and cameras to navigate sidewalks for short trips, including lunch deliveries to crowded Beijing office buildings.
But on-demand delivery companies such as Deliv and DoorDash that make point-to-point trips carrying food or e-commerce purchases typically rely on armies of couriers who travel by car, scooter or bicycle. The FedEx “SameDay Bot” is starting off with tests planned in the corporation’s hometown of Memphis. AutoZone, Lowe’s, Pizza Hut, Target, Walgreens and Walmart are looking at using the FedEx bot. Retailers envision having robot fleets ready to make same-day deliveries that would be branded with the retailer’s logo and modified for different uses– a cooler for grocery, a heater for pizza.
“The economics of a point-to-point delivery versus a planned or even an overnight delivery, they’re just very different,” says a FedEx exec. “Eventually, we believe the majority of same-day, point-to-point will be delivered using the FedEx SameDay Bot.”
Your students will enjoy the 30 second video embedded in the article.
Classroom discussion questions:
- What makes delivery with the robot less than optimal?
- What are the robot’s main advantages?
My primary interest is to understand if in the future after all these robots and drones will be so much of our daily lives… Is there going to be companies that will deliver, in this case, by humans and that will be their advantage only because of human interactions?