According to a study by the consultancy Frost & Sullivan such robots weigh between 11 and 36 kilograms, have a load capacity similar to their weight, a range of up to 16 kilometres, a battery life of up to 12 hours and a price between €1700 and €26.000. In test trials the robots are usually still monitored by humans. However, Frost & Sullivan predicts, “by 2020 delivery bots will be 99% autonomous.”

There are several reasons why self-driving vehicles for delivery mature faster than those for passengers. First, they are usually smaller and slower and thus easier to steer and stop; second, they can take their time to process and solve unforeseen problems; and finally, with no passengers and often considerably less weight the risk associated with collisions is reduced.

However, driverless delivery doesn’t come without challenges. It remains to be seen how robots that use sidewalks will navigate amongst hundreds of pedestrians in extremely busy city centres, if people will trust robots to enter into their houses and how these robots will reach apartments that lie higher than the ground level.

Toyota’s Jim Adler knows such obstacles and expects, “it will be years before we share roads with Level 5 self-driving cars.” Though when his company invested in Boxbot in June he predicted. “There are specific use cases where autonomous vehicles could hit the roads now. Self-driving delivery is an example of just that.”