Yes, Wolt is testing food deliveries by robots – and it’s happening as we speak

Today is a historical day for us at Wolt. We have just started testing food home delivery – with robots.

This must be the stuff of the future, you might say.

Nope. The testing has already started.

It is happening as we speak.

And it will take place throughout the upcoming months.

All this is possible due to a partnership we are announcing today. It is one with the acclaimed robotics company, Starship Technologies.

Because of this, Wolt customers in Tallinn can order as usual through our app – or Wolt.com – but they have the order delivered to their door by a small robot running on wheels.

We could not be more excited about this, since it’s not only the future. It’s also just plain cool.

In the pilot phase, if you happen to be the lucky person in Tallinn getting a robot to deliver your order, it will work as follows:

You choose a restaurant on the Wolt app and place your order. You don’t know this yet, but in the background, the Wolt system pairs the order with a free delivery robot by Starship.

Now, instead of a regular courier, this little guy on wheels will start making his way to you.

At this point, we will send you an additional SMS: Your food is being delivered by a robot! The food comes in a container inside the robot. The box shall remain tightly locked until you open it by clicking a link you’ll also receive on your phone.

There’s also an extra cool bit: You get to actually meet the robot.

Yes, you’ll need to come out and grab the food at your front door (the robot has not learned how to ring the doorbell just yet). But: it’ll be worth it. You’ll be one of the first people in the history of mankind to get a robot home delivery.

In this first phase, this will be a test to see how this works and how people find the robots. That is why and where in Tallinn the robots operate will change as the pilot progresses. If you want to learn more, you should join our Estonian Wolt & Tähed page – there will be up to date info there.

We don’t yet know whether or not we’ll actually roll this out big time in Estonia, Finland, Sweden or other upcoming Wolt markets. That is exactly why we are piloting with Starship.

For Wolt, all this comes naturally, since we are a technology company at heart.

What people see is Wolt delivering lots of food. What we do to achieve that is working with some of the most complex problems on Earth around how to pair hundreds of real-time orders with restaurants and couriers (and robots!), or how to make the easiest, most delightful user experience around discovering delicious meals.

In Starship’s case, they are working on how robots can manoeuvre down the street and interact with humans, how to make robotics affordable and thus everything around logistics more environmental (it’s way less CO2 than a car or a scooter).

Both companies are working on the forefront of where tech makes the real world better.

So, we’ll say it again: could not be more excited about this.

PS. Got interested about working with Wolt and making the cities around the world better? Do check out wolt.com/jobs. We are hiring.

Get the Wolt app: wolt.com/download

Order Wolt on the web: wolt.com

More info on Starship: starship.xyz