An Uber rival operating in Europe by the name of Bolt is promising to transform the way food and grocery deliveries are made with the introduction of small autonomous delivery vehicles.
Bolt has announced that it is working with Estonian company Starship Technologies on the autonomous delivery service. The service will first launch in Estonia’s capital of Tallinn later this year and use small, six-wheeled robots developed by Bolt.
The two companies want to make autonomous deliveries as quick and easy as possible. As such, shoppers will be able to opt for the easy delivery service at the tap of a button and when the robot arrives, they’ll just need to tap another button to open it up.
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Starship already offers similar autonomous delivery services in other markets. In the U.S., for example, it operates a partnership with Grubhub where deliveries can be made to college students. The company also runs similar services in the UK and other European countries. It recently become the first autonomous delivery company to complete 5 million commercial deliveries worldwide.
“Bolt and Starship share very similar goals of promoting sustainability in local transport,” Starship Technologies chief executive Alastair Westgarth said. “In our case, we offer a convenient and on-demand autonomous delivery service, perfectly aligning with the mission of making cities more eco-friendly.”
Bolt was founded in Estonia in 2013 as Taxify before later changing its name. It has expanded rapidly over the past decade and currently operates in 45 countries throughout Europe, Africa, Western Asia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. In addition to offering ride-hailing services, it operates food delivery, grocery delivery, car-sharing, and scooter-sharing services.
Bolt president Jevgeni Kabanov expressed optimism at the collaboration being extended in the future to make deliveries more affordable and accessible to a larger customer base.
