DC to get robo deliveries

Order a grocery delivery in the Washington D.C. area in the coming months and you could find yourself opening the door to a self-driving robot. The company behind the wheel-based autonomous bot is about to start testing grocery and restaurant takeout deliveries in the East Coast city after it became the first in the U.S. to greenlight use of the diminutive delivery vehicle, Re/code reported this week. Built by Starship Technologies -- a London-based company started by two Skype co-founders -- the trundling robot uses nine cameras, an array of sensors, and GPS software to navigate its route. The maps, compiled by Starship, are said to be accurate to the nearest inch, though if the robot has any unexpected problems on the way to its destination, a human operator will be on hand to take control remotely. Starship had hoped to get permission to use the robot in San Francisco, but the company was reportedly put off by the city's demand that it pay a hefty 66 permit fee for every side of a city block that it wanted to use. Washington officials are charging no such fee, though it does stipulate that the robot mustn't exceed 10 mph.