Self-driving delivery robots could soon be common sights in European cities

Airborne drone delivery is still more PR than public reality, but wheeled, self-driving delivery bots could be trundling down a sidewalk near you sooner than you think. London-based Starship Technologies, which counts Skype co-founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis among its founding team, is launching a broad testing phase of its autonomous delivery bots in parts of the UK, Germany and Switzerland starting this month. Starship's relatively small wheeled delivery bots have been in testing in select cities in 12 countries during the last nine months already, but this expansion of the trial will mark the first time the robots are being tested in actual delivery scenarios. That means they're bringing on partners to provide the delivery inventory, including food delivery players Just Eat, and London-based Pronto.co.uk. German retailer Metro Group and parcel delivery company Hermes will also take part in the pilot, which will span five cities providing deliveries to actual paying customers.