送货机器人走上城市人行道

Automated delivery robots may not have taken to the skies in large numbers, despite Amazon’s trial in 2016, but they have hit the streets and are delivering items — from laundry to burgers — to consumers’ doorsteps.

尽管在2016年亚马逊(Amazon)试验之后，自动送货机器人也许并没有大规模飞上天空，但它们已经上路了，把各类商品(从洗好的衣服到汉堡包)送到消费者家门口。

Ahti Heinla, co-founder of Starship Technologies, a European maker of delivery robots designed to trundle the pavements of towns and cities, believes the technology will grow exponentially within a few years.

欧洲送货机器人厂商Starship Technologies的联合创始人阿赫蒂•海因拉(Ahti Heinla)认为，该技术将在几年内呈指数级增长。该公司机器人的设计目标是能够在城镇人行道上缓慢行进。

The company, whose founders were among the team that started Skype, maintains its development operations in Estonia. It also has offices in the UK, Germany and the US and claims its robots have been tested in 100 cities and have passed by 12m people.

Starship的创始人来自Skype的创始团队。该公司把研发业务留在爱沙尼亚，同时在英国、德国和美国设有办事处。公司声称，其机器人已在100个城市进行了测试，在1200万人身边走过。

Clients include Domino’s Pizza, which is already using Starship robots for a small proportion of its fast food deliveries in Germany and the Netherlands. 客户包括达美乐比萨(Domino’s Pizza)，后者已在德国和荷兰使用少量Starship机器人执行快餐外卖的送货任务。

“Delivery is something that can be automated relatively quickly,” Mr Heinla says, speaking from Starship’s office in Tallinn.

“送货是可以相对迅速地实现自动化的，”海因拉在爱沙尼亚首都塔林的Starship办公室说。

“People think this is going to happen 20 or 30 years from now but we realised . . . the time is now.”

“人们认为这将在未来20或30年后才会发生，但我们意识到……现在是时候了。”

His company is currently deploying around 100 robots across eight cities in Europe and the US and he anticipates this number will increase rapidly once more are made and the cost of manufacturing each machine comes down.

他的公司目前在欧洲和美国的8个城市部署了大约100个机器人，他预计，随着更多机器人被制造出来，随着每台机器人的制造成本逐渐下降，这个数字将会迅速增加。

The six-wheeled robots travel at up to 4 miles per hour and can carry about 10kg of cargo. They use 3G technology to find their routes through the streets. Once the robot arrives, customers use an app to unlock the lid and retrieve the items.

这些六轮式机器人的行进速度可达每小时4英里，可携带约10千克货物。它们使用3G技术在街道上寻找路线。一旦机器人到达，客户会使用一个app打开盖子，取走商品。

Starship leases the robots to businesses and charges them delivery fees, which can be many times less than the current alternatives.

Starship将机器人租借给企业，并向它们收取运费，总费用比目前的替代选择低很多倍。

Starship has already received the endorsement of Daimler, the Stuttgart-based parent of Mercedes-Benz, which led Starship’s latest fundraising with an investment of €16m.

Starship已得到梅赛德斯-奔驰(Mercedes-Benz)母公司戴姆勒(Daimler)的支持，总部位于斯图加特的戴姆勒在Starship的最新一轮融资中领投1600万欧元。

However, Starship has encountered obstacles. Some cities, notably San Francisco, have toughened the rules, banning delivery robots from operating on most of its sidewalks last year.

然而，Starship遇到了障碍。部分城市(尤其是旧金山)已收紧了规定，去年开始禁止送货机器人在该市大部分人行道上行走。

Mr Heinla insists that the idea of autonomous delivery robots populating the streets is mostly welcome. He points to Virginia, Washington DC, Florida, Wisconsin and Idaho as places where authorities have relaxed their rules to allow his business to operate. “One door closes and 10 doors open,” he says.

海因拉坚称，大量自动送货机器人走上街道的构想在多数地方受到欢迎。他指出，在弗吉尼亚州、华盛顿特区、佛罗里达州、威斯康辛州和爱达荷州等地，当局都放宽了规定，允许他的公司开展经营。“一扇门关上，10扇门打开，”他说。

Mr Heinla will also have to make the business scalable if his company is to attract serious customers. He compares the development of this technology to the making of the iPhone in its early days. “You can build things by the millions very quickly.”

如果海因拉的公司想要吸引严肃客户，他还将必须让业务变得可扩展。他把这种技术的发展与iPhone投产初期相提并论。“你很快就可以达到数以百万计的产量。”

Some of those in the delivery business remain unconvinced. Richard Blown, head of innovation at Hermes, a London-based delivery company whose clients include retailers Next and John Lewis, is sceptical about the idea of an army of robots replacing humans any time soon.

一些快递业人士仍未被说服。在总部位于伦敦的快递公司Hermes，创新主管理查德•布洛恩(Richard Blown)对一大批机器人很快取代人类的想法表示怀疑。该公司的客户包括零售商Next和约翰•路易斯(John Lewis)。

“There is a question on how far in the future would this model be scalable,” says Mr Blown, whose company took part in a small trial of the robots in the London borough of Southwark.

“有个问题是，这种模式在未来会有多大的可扩展性，”布洛恩说。他的公司参与了在伦敦萨瑟克区(Southwark)进行的一项小规模机器人试验。

Hermes wanted to determine whether there would be consumer demand for 15-minute collection slots. “The robot would come to you, collect the parcel and take it to the parcel shop,” he explains. “These were more accurate time slots than we currently provide and it saves people having to leave their homes.”

Hermes想要确定，消费者对15分钟的快递取件时间段有没有需求。“机器人会来找你，取走包裹，把它送到包裹店，”布洛恩解释称，“这些时间段比我们现在所提供的更精确，还让人们不用费事出门。”

Mr Blown’s trial showed consumers were open to this new service, but it also revealed some limitations of the robots: they were confined to a three-mile area that the machines had to map out beforehand.

试验表明消费者对这项新服务持开放态度，但同时也暴露出机器人的一些局限性：这些机器人被限制在三英里范围内，而机器不得不预先设定界限。

He did, however, like the fact that you can trace a robot’s progress on a map in the same way that an Uber car can be monitored.

然而，布洛恩确实喜欢这个事实：你可以像监测一辆优步(Uber)汽车那样，在地图上追踪一个机器人的行进进度。

In the end, however, his company decided to stick with the traditional van delivery and collection. “At the moment one of our couriers can deliver 50 parcels in one go. With one robot delivering a package in about half an hour, you would need a lot of robots.”

然而，他的公司最终决定坚持传统的货车送件和取件方式。“现在，我们的快递员跑一趟可以递送50个包裹。考虑到一台机器人大概需要半小时才能递送一个包裹，你会需要很多机器人。”

Companies such as Starship will not only have to work out how to scale up, but they also face opposition from groups with concerns ranging from potential job losses to competition for limited space on pavements.

Starship等公司将不仅需要解决如何扩大规模的问题，还面对一些团体的抵触，后者对各种问题(从潜在失业，到挤占人行道上的有限空间)感到担忧。

“Pedestrians already find the footway littered with obstructions, including street furniture and vehicles parked on the pavement,” says Living Streets, a UK charity that promotes walking. It adds: “Pavement-based droids are an additional obstacle and introduce a new threat because they are moving.”

“行人已发现人行道上到处都是障碍物，包括街区公共设施和停在人行道上的车辆，”提倡步行的英国慈善机构“生活街道”(Living Streets)说。它补充道：“基于人行道的机器人是一种额外障碍，并且因为它们在移动，所以增添了一种新的威胁。”

This will not dissuade Mr Heinla from pursuing his goal. “There is space on the sidewalk and our robots are designed to play nicely,” he says.

这不会阻止海因拉追求他的目标。“人行道上有空间，我们的机器人从设计上确保遵守行走礼仪，”他说。