REVEALED: Robot delivery service to serve 20,000 more residents across FIVE new areas of Northampton

A robot grocery delivery service in Northampton is set to serve an extra 20,000 residents across FIVE new areas of the town.

Starship Technologies, which owns the robot delivery service, announced this week that it has teamed up with more Co-op shops across the town.

The robots delivers things like milk, eggs and bread right to customers' front doors after customers they place orders via the Starship mobile phone app.

Areas in Northampton that are already benefitting from the service include Abington, Boothville, Duston, East Hunsbury, Great Billing, Hardingstone, Hopping Hill, Kingsthorpe, Spinney Hill, Upton, Weston Favell and Wootton.

And now, Starship has revealed that Blackthorn, Far Cotton, Grange Park, Southfields and Thornton Park are the newest areas that will benefit from on demand grocery delivery.

Now 80,000 households in Northampton have access to the robot delivery service.

Andrew Curtis, UK operations manager at Starship Technologies, said: “Residents in Northampton have embraced the benefits of contactless delivery over the last 18-plus months and we are very happy to be able to offer our service to even more communities across the town from today.

"The environmental benefits of autonomous delivery are clear, and it has also been very encouraging to see how much the robots have been welcomed and integrated as part of the local community in Northampton.”

Councillor Phil Larratt, cabinet member at West Northamptonshire Council (WNC), said he is delighted the carbon-free service has expanded.

He said: "Harnessing the latest technology and innovative schemes like this will play an increasingly important role as we look at ways of cutting emissions and making West Northants a more sustainable place to live for the future.”

Chris Conway, Co-op’s head of eCommerce, added: “Co-op is committed to exploring new and innovative ways to increase access to our products and services. Our members and our customers lead busy lives and ease, speed and convenience is at the heart of our approach."

Northampton residents can choose from a range of more than 2,000 grocery items, schedule their delivery, then drop a pin where they want their delivery to be sent. They can watch in real-time via an interactive map as the robot makes its journey to them. Once the robot arrives, they receive an alert, and can meet and unlock it through the app.

The robots use a combination of sensors, artificial intelligence and machine learning to travel on pavements and navigate around any obstacles, while computer vision-based navigation helps them map their environment to the nearest inch.

The robots were first introduced to the town back in November 2020.