
Starship Technologies’ delivery robots are largely autonomous, although they have human operators to intervene if necessary. A proposed city ordinance would limit any delivery robots to sidewalks on UW-Madison’s campus.
A proposed Madison ordinance would prohibit the use of delivery robots everywhere in the city except for UW-Madison’s campus.
The Transportation Policy and Planning Board unanimously recommended the measure on Monday. If approved by the City Council, it would continue to allow the food delivery robots that UW Housing deployed in November to take dining hall food to students on campus.
Assistant city attorney Amber McReynolds said the purpose of the proposed ordinance is to prevent other companies from bringing new robots to Madison and clogging up city sidewalks. Right now, state law bars delivery robots from streets but not sidewalks, unless a municipality prohibits their use on sidewalks.
McReynolds said UW-Madison has been a “responsible and respectful” user of the robots. They’ve been operating under an informal agreement that limits them to certain sidewalks and crosswalks.
The robots that UW Housing is using were developed by San Francisco-based Starship Technologies. The robots are fully autonomous, but can be taken over remotely by a human at any time. The approximately 30 robots have been traveling from UW dining halls to dorms to fulfill orders that students make via an app on their phones.
“This is helping us deliver our food to our students,” said director of UW Housing Jeff Novak, who spoke in support of the ordinance.