送貨機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.

盡管在2016年亞馬遜(Amazon)試驗之后，自動送貨機器人也許并沒有大規(guī)模飛上天空，但它們已經(jīng)上路了，把各類商品(從洗好的衣服到漢堡包)送到消費者家門口。

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.

歐洲送貨機器人廠商Starship Technologies的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人阿赫蒂•海因拉(Ahti Heinla)認為，該技術(shù)將在幾年內(nèi)呈指數(shù)級增長。該公司機器人的設(shè)計目標是能夠在城鎮(zhèn)人行道上緩慢行進。

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的創(chuàng)始人來自Skype的創(chuàng)始團隊。該公司把研發(fā)業(yè)務(wù)留在愛沙尼亞，同時在英國、德國和美國設(shè)有辦事處。公司聲稱，其機器人已在100個城市進行了測試，在1200萬人身邊走過。

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. 客戶包括達美樂比薩(Domino’s Pizza)，后者已在德國和荷蘭使用少量Starship機器人執(zhí)行快餐外賣的送貨任務(wù)。

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

“送貨是可以相對迅速地實現(xiàn)自動化的，”海因拉在愛沙尼亞首都塔林的Starship辦公室說。

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

“人們認為這將在未來20或30年后才會發(fā)生，但我們意識到……現(xiàn)在是時候了。”

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.

他的公司目前在歐洲和美國的8個城市部署了大約100個機器人，他預(yù)計，隨著更多機器人被制造出來，隨著每臺機器人的制造成本逐漸下降，這個數(shù)字將會迅速增加。

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.

這些六輪式機器人的行進速度可達每小時4英里，可攜帶約10千克貨物。它們使用3G技術(shù)在街道上尋找路線。一旦機器人到達，客戶會使用一個app打開蓋子，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將機器人租借給企業(yè)，并向它們收取運費，總費用比目前的替代選擇低很多倍。

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已得到梅賽德斯-奔馳(Mercedes-Benz)母公司戴姆勒(Daimler)的支持，總部位于斯圖加特的戴姆勒在Starship的最新一輪融資中領(lǐng)投1600萬歐元。

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遇到了障礙。部分城市(尤其是舊金山)已收緊了規(guī)定，去年開始禁止送貨機器人在該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.

海因拉堅稱，大量自動送貨機器人走上街道的構(gòu)想在多數(shù)地方受到歡迎。他指出，在弗吉尼亞州、華盛頓特區(qū)、佛羅里達州、威斯康辛州和愛達荷州等地，當局都放寬了規(guī)定，允許他的公司開展經(jīng)營。“一扇門關(guān)上，10扇門打開，”他說。

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嚴肅客戶，他還將必須讓業(yè)務(wù)變得可擴展。他把這種技術(shù)的發(fā)展與iPhone投產(chǎn)初期相提并論。“你很快就可以達到數(shù)以百萬計的產(chǎn)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.

一些快遞業(yè)人士仍未被說服。在總部位于倫敦的快遞公司Hermes，創(chuàng)新主管理查德•布洛恩(Richard Blown)對一大批機器人很快取代人類的想法表示懷疑。該公司的客戶包括零售商Next和約翰•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.

“有個問題是，這種模式在未來會有多大的可擴展性，”布洛恩說。他的公司參與了在倫敦薩瑟克區(qū)(Southwark)進行的一項小規(guī)模機器人試驗。

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想要確定，消費者對15分鐘的快遞取件時間段有沒有需求。“機器人會來找你，取走包裹，把它送到包裹店，”布洛恩解釋稱，“這些時間段比我們現(xiàn)在所提供的更精確，還讓人們不用費事出門。”

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.

試驗表明消費者對這項新服務(wù)持開放態(tài)度，但同時也暴露出機器人的一些局限性：這些機器人被限制在三英里范圍內(nèi)，而機器不得不預(yù)先設(shè)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，布洛恩確實喜歡這個事實：你可以像監(jiān)測一輛優(yōu)步(Uber)汽車那樣，在地圖上追蹤一個機器人的行進進度。

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，他的公司最終決定堅持傳統(tǒng)的貨車送件和取件方式。“現(xiàn)在，我們的快遞員跑一趟可以遞送50個包裹。考慮到一臺機器人大概需要半小時才能遞送一個包裹，你會需要很多機器人。”

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等公司將不僅需要解決如何擴大規(guī)模的問題，還面對一些團體的抵觸，后者對各種問題(從潛在失業(yè)，到擠占人行道上的有限空間)感到擔憂。

“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.”

“行人已發(fā)現(xiàn)人行道上到處都是障礙物，包括街區(qū)公共設(shè)施和停在人行道上的車輛，”提倡步行的英國慈善機構(gòu)“生活街道”(Living Streets)說。它補充道：“基于人行道的機器人是一種額外障礙，并且因為它們在移動，所以增添了一種新的威脅。”

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.

這不會阻止海因拉追求他的目標。“人行道上有空間，我們的機器人從設(shè)計上確保遵守行走禮儀，”他說。