# FAQs #### Company - ##### Where is the company based? Starship is headquartered in San Francisco, USA, with R&D facilities in Estonia and Finland. We also have offices in London, Milton Keynes and Hamburg, Germany. - ##### Where does Starship Technologies operate? Starship currently operates in over 300 service areas across US, UK, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Czechia, Finland and Estonia. [You can see a list of the current locations here](https://www.starship.xyz/operations). - ##### What is Starship Technologies? Starship Technologies is revolutionising last-mile deliveries with autonomous robots. These robots are designed to deliver food, groceries, and packages locally on-demand and complete thousands of autonomous deliveries every day around the world. They drive autonomously on pavements/sidewalks, but are monitored by humans who can take control at any time. Starship was founded by two Skype co-founders, Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis. - ##### What is ‘Delivery by Starship’? _Delivery by Starship_ is _Starship Technologies’_ delivery-as-a-service solution, enabling retailers to either add robot delivery into their existing delivery options, or kick-start an on-demand delivery service from their store/restaurant using autonomous robots. Unlike _Starship’s_ Food Delivery app, using _Delivery by Starship_, retailers and restauranteurs accept orders via their own app and fulfil orders using our robots. - ##### I have a problem with my order, who should I contact? _If you ordered via the 'Starship Food Delivery' app, please contact us via the in-app chat._ If you ordered via a 3rd party app, _Starship_ only operates the robots. As we do not receive either customer or order details, we’re unable to assist with order queries. If you’ve received a robot delivery but ordered through a 3rd party app, please contact the customer services team for via their app. - ##### How can I integrate Delivery by Starship into my business? Delivery by Starship is implemented via a dedicated API, enabling partners to create delivery jobs and load robots. Full developer documents are available detailing the _Delivery by Starship_ integration process. If you’re interested in becoming a client, you can [find out more here](https://www.starship.xyz/faqs/what-is-delivery-by-starship/), or contact [business@starship.co](https://web.archive.org/web/20230607231306/mailto:business@starship.co) for more information. - ##### Can I only sign up for Delivery by Starship in your existing service areas? Starship works in partnership with both retailers/restaurants and local authorities to launch new areas. For _Delivery by Starship_ integration, there are a number of different options available to clients – please contact [business@starship.co](mailto:business@starship.co) to discuss which option is right for your business. - ##### I have a problem with my order, how do I contact you? If you ordered through the Starship Food Delivery app, please contact us via the live chat option either in-app or at the bottom of the screen, so we can assist you as soon as possible. Alternatively, you can email us on [help@starship.xyz](mailto:help@starship.xyz). - ##### Is there a minimum spend per order? No :-) We believe delivery should be accessible to all. With no minimum spend, and no small basket fee, it’s perfect for top-up shopping and those sneaky midweek takeaways! - ##### How does a customer order a robot delivery? Ordering from Starship is very easy to do. Customers use Starship’s mobile app to order products from participating businesses and select the destination for the delivery. The customer is then notified through the mobile app when their goods are ready for delivery, and can track the movement of the robot through the mobile app. Once the Starship robot arrives at its destination, the customer is notified. The customer can then retrieve their goods by unlocking the lid of the robot by pressing the unique ‘unlock’ button on the Starship mobile app. - ##### How far can the robots deliver? This varies depending on the area, but our robots generally work within a 2 mile distance from stores. Please note: there may be some areas where we can’t deliver – please check in-app for available merchants. - ##### How can I add music to my order? In some service areas we offer a small selection of songs for a robot to play when it delivers your order. When placing your order, you can add one of these songs to your basket from the ‘robot music’ category, before completing your order and checking out as usual. We update this music selection on a regular basis – often voted for by our customers! - ##### What if a person who is blind or has a visual impairment encounters a robot? Sonic sensors and computer imaging assist the robots in identifying individuals who are in the vicinity of our devices. Regardless of whether or not an individual has visible disabilities, our robots are programmed to avoid pedestrians and to stop if an object appears in front of it, as well as slow down if an object is alongside of it. If a robot comes to a stop, for any reason, a remote assistant is notified, who can take control of the robot and navigate it, using low-resolution cameras. In addition, Starship has created pre-defined pick-up points to help visually impaired customers to order food to a fixed location. As part of the company’s efforts in this regard, Starship proactively engages advocacy organizations that work with the visually-impaired community. - ##### What happens if someone tries to tamper with a robot? If somebody tries to break into, damage or pick up the robot, a loud siren will sound as a deterrent. Any incident of theft or vandalism will be reported to the relevant authorities. - ##### How do you protect people’s privacy? Starship never shares customer information and does not store such information on its robots. Although the robots are equipped with twelve cameras, we minimise the amount of information that we collect. When the robots are operated by a remote assistant, the images are transmitted exclusively via a lower resolution feed, which is further obfuscated to conceal individual identities. Any high-resolution images that are collected while the robots are in autonomous mode generally remain on the robot for a very short duration, before being discarded. The full privacy policy is available at [https://www.starship.xyz/privacy/](https://www.starship.xyz/privacy/) - ##### What happens if a robot breaks down? The robot will come to a safe stop. As the robot only goes at ~4mph, it can come to a safe stop very quickly without causing any surprise or harm to anyone in its surroundings. On a rare occasion this happens, a member of the _Starship_ team will then come and collect the robot as quickly as possible. - ##### How do Starship robots cross roads? Starship’s robots are full of technology allowing them to detect vehicles, pedestrians and other objects around them. Naturally risk-averse, they will take time to assess the route ahead and the road to understand if there’s traffic coming before deciding if it’s safe to cross. If in doubt, the robot will not cross. They will also adhere to traffic light signals. Before Starship starts operating in an area, crossing points are mapped along with pavement routes, meaning robots will only cross roads at agreed crossing points. - ##### Are Starship robots safe for pedestrians? Absolutely! The robots are low mass (approx. 38kg / 83 lbs. without cargo), low speed (~4 mph/6.4kmh) devices that travel on sidewalks, using proprietary mapping, navigation and sophisticated obstacle avoidance technology. _Starship’s_ robots are equipped with twelve cameras, a sensor suite, radar, time-of-flight (TOF) capabilities, and are constantly monitored by a remote assistant. Robots are capable of identifying objects in their vicinity and making the necessary course-corrections to avoid them. When an object is adjacent to the robot, but not in front of it, the robot reduces its speed. When an object is in front of the robot, the robot will come to a complete stop. - ##### Can Starship robots go up curbs? Yes, the robots’ 6 wheel design and bogie system allows them to go up and down curbs. - ##### Can the robot operate in rain and snow? Yes, the robot’s operate in almost all weather conditions. Very occasionally, we may pause service for safety reasons if weather conditions are exceptionally bad. If there is significant snowfall we may pause service until the pavements/sidewalks have been swept.