Robots deliver food to Stockholmers

Now, residents on Södermalm in Stockholm can get groceries delivered to their door – by a robot. The robots are as large as moving boxes and move along the sidewalks at walking speed.

» Published: March 13 2025

Robots deliver food to Stockholmers
Photo: Pontus Lundahl/TT

Behind the project are Foodora and Starship Technologies, which manufacture the self-driving robots.

The fleet currently consists of 15 robots limited to Södermalm, Solna, and Sundbyberg. But the plan is to expand.

If everything goes as planned, we want to launch the project in other parts of Sweden as well, says Daniel Gustafsson Raba, operational manager at Foodora.

So far, the robots are only allowed to move on sidewalks, they are not allowed to be on bike and car roads, except when crossing pedestrian crossings. The speed is limited to six kilometers per hour.

With the help of sensors and cameras, it relates to its surroundings and stops or moves if someone wants to pass. The risk of collision is described by Ahti Heinla as small.

It knows where it is allowed to be and not, and it's always the one that adapts to humans, not the other way around.

Ahti Heinla believes that the robots are here to stay and when asked if there have been any problems when they were launched in other cities, he answers that the reception has been exclusively positive.

The Transport Agency, which granted the permit, considers the technology behind the robots to be both reliable and traffic-safe.

This permit is valid for a month, then it will be evaluated. Among other things, we receive feedback from the public to ensure that they do not disturb the surroundings. And if everything has gone well, the permit can be extended, says Anders Eriksson, technical investigator at the Transport Agency.

Loading related articles...

Tags

TTT
By TTTranslated and adapted by Sweden Herald
Loading related posts...