Watch out: Robots are rolling around University of Minnesota delivering food to students

Last month, the busy sidewalks of the University of Minnesota gained new commuters: little white robots, carrying meals across the Minneapolis campus.

These futuristic lunch coolers on wheels have been rolling around for more than a month, delivering about 1,200 orders to hungry college students, according to the University. California-based Starship Technologies operates its robots on more than 30 college campuses, per its app. A first for the city of Minneapolis, critics of the one-year pilot program worry the robots will impede traffic and take jobs from actual workers. But students enjoy the sometimes cheaper and quicker alternative to apps like DoorDash.

“There are a lot of people who have very tight schedules, they’re in buildings that don’t offer food service, and they do need some options for dining,” said Alice Roberts-Davis, vice president for University services. “And so the robots were a great opportunity for us to provide food service coming to them, instead of them having to go to food service.”

The 15 robots journey between Coffman Memorial Union — with its various dining options including Panda Express, Starbucks and Erbert and Gerbert’s — and the East Bank and West Bank. Students can order from restaurants through the Starship app, which charges a delivery fee around $2.50 and an additional service fee worth 10% of the order value. There’s no need to tip, and students can use their University meal plan for payment.

The app estimates a robot will deliver an order to a pinned location within about 30 minutes. Food is secure until the customer unlocks the robot with the app. In the event someone attempts to pick up the 80-pound machine, sirens sound until it’s put down, all the while Starship tracks it to the nearest inch.

Starship robots only make deliveries on campus property, but they travel on city and county pathways, according to the Minneapolis City Council. On Aug. 15, the council approved a year-long pilot program for delivery robots. But so far Starship’s campus endeavor is the only use of one of the three available permits.

Starship — in working with Chartwells Higher Education, the University’s on-campus dining manager — said its robots travel like a pedestrian, rolling on sidewalks, crossing intersections, hopping curbs and powering through rain and snow. Each robot travels at a top speed of 4 mph, just below the City Council’s imposed 5-mph limit.

At the Aug. 15 council meeting, Council Member Robin Wonsley, whose ward includes the University, expressed her concerns about the robots’ potential effect on labor and the city’s streets and sidewalks. Wonsley voted to approve the pilot, so the city could be ahead of the curve on these new technologies, she said.

“When the new robot program was first presented to my office, I was disappointed to hear that these labor issues did not appear to have been proactively considered by the University,” Wonsley said in a statement.

The University actually believes the service will increase its demand for labor, Roberts-Davis said. As students place more orders, dining services will need to hire more employees, like those who make the food and run orders to the robots.

Marc Bellemare, an applied economics professor at the University, said robots like these are the next step in the “food-delivery revolution,” which has created a rapid expansion in the number of available delivery options through apps such as DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats.

“It is coming whether one likes it or not,” Bellemare said. “The question is what are going to be the anticipated effects of that on all kinds of things?”

In the food delivery industry, Bellemare said automation of labor will likely cause unemployment in the short-term for groups who often rely on these jobs, including recent immigrants, students and those with less education. In the long run, other jobs will likely crop up for these workers to fill, he added, saying society has “consistently innovated, and the unemployment rate hasn’t gone up to 100% over the course of human existence.”

Using a combination of cameras and GPS technologies, Starship robots operate at level 4 autonomy on a five-point scale. They travel in pre-mapped areas, but a person can take control when needed, according to Starship. Neural networks, cameras, radars and sensors form what Starship called a “situational-awareness bubble” around the robot.

Sometimes, students can burst that bubble.

“They stop like literally every two feet because it will be a big crowd of people, and it’s trying to get through it,” said first-year student Ben Leahy, who saw his friend’s order arrive to their dorm about 20 minutes late.

Roberts-Davis said it’s good the robots err on the side of safety and caution.

“That, to me, is worth waiting a few extra minutes for your food,” Robertson-Davis said, “to make sure it’s going to get to you, and it’s going to get to you in a way that is not harming anybody else on the route.”

Caleb Fravel is a University of Minnesota student reporter on assignment for the Minnesota Star Tribune.