UW-Madison's food delivery robots are no more

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The army of small, white food delivery robots crisscrossing the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus for the past seven years have vanished, destined for city streets around the world as the company behind them transitions from mobile campus snack packs to grocery delivery drones.

Starship Technologies, based in Estonia and San Francisco, announced this month it’s winding down operations at universities and focusing instead on growing demand for grocery deliveries in the U.S. and Europe. A company statement said that means more than 1,200 robots from campuses are being redeployed.

“We built something remarkable on US campuses, and we’re proud of that work,” said Starship Technologies CEO Ahti Heinla. “When we started in 2018, operating in closed, controlled environments was the right foundation: it gave us the operational depth and real-world delivery data that no lab could provide. Now we can operate reliably at scale in open urban environments, which is exactly what grocery delivery demands.”

The company said its projecting demand for what will now be grocery delivery robots to grow by ten fold over the next two years. Operations in Finland have already claimed 20 percent of that market.

UW-Madison Director of Culinary Services Peter Testory told WPR the news came abruptly with an email from Starship in early June that its campus services were ending immediately. He said it wasn’t a “huge deal” since students were on break and Starship started removing the robots and charging stations the next week.

Testory said the campus was one of the first to partner with Starship, which delivered up to 400 orders per day during the COVID-19 pandemic. UW-Madison also received a portion of the $3.25 delivery fee through a revenue sharing agreement with the company.

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Testory said he’s sad to see the robots go.

“It was a great partnership we had with Starship,” said Testory. “They’ve seen better opportunities in other sectors of the food service world, and you know, there’s no ill feelings or anything like that. With Starship, we had a great run, and they were able to offer a unique service to our campus that put us on the national map in a number of ways for having that service.”

What comes next for hungry students and the food services program is yet to be decided, he said. There are other robotic meal delivery companies, he said, but the university isn’t rushing into anything.

“I think having the right program for our students is more important than finding the quickest program,” said Testory. “We want to make sure that it makes financial sense for campus, we want to make sure that it offers a quality service for our students, and something that they want and desire.”