性视界传媒

Robot Love: Celebrating four years of Starship robot deliveries at Mason

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It was January 2019 when 性视界传媒 became the first college campus in the United States to offer autonomous food delivery through Starship Technologies. Now Mason and Starship are celebrating four years of autonomous robot deliveries.

The service launched with 25 robots, which was the world鈥檚 largest fleet of delivery robots. The fleet has now grown to nearly 60 robots, serving the Fairfax Campus. The robots have delivered more than 333,000 orders and brought national and worldwide attention to Mason.

Here are some stats about Starship robots at Mason:

  • Since launch, more than 335,489 orders have been completed.
  • More than 17,334 people have placed orders.
  • Mason loves Starship robots, but the person with the most orders "really" loves Starship robots, placing 659 orders!
  • The robots have fueled student studies since 2019 with 39,828 coffees delivered.
  • Pizza might be the quintessential college food, but the most popular item for the past four years has been Steak 鈥楴 Shake鈥檚 The Original Double 鈥楴 Fries (ordered 13,637 times!)
  • If you鈥檙e at Whitetop Hall, you鈥檙e likely to spot a robot. This residence hall is the most popular delivery spot on campus.
  • Breakfast became a popular meal once the robots arrived, but it still can鈥檛 beat lunch, which is the most popular delivery meal of the day.
  • The robots have not only made an impression on campus, but they have a loyal following online too! Everybody wants a selfie with a robot, but Halloween is the prime 鈥渟elfie season鈥 for these robots thanks to Pumpkinbot!

Mason junior Madison Bryan-Barnes didn鈥檛 realize the robots delivered food when she first saw them on campus. 鈥淚 always thought they were really cute and was surprised at how fast they moved,鈥 she said. 鈥淭he first time I ordered Starship I was having a really hard day, and I was grateful that I didn鈥檛 have to go anywhere to get my food. I like that Mason has a way for students to have their food delivered in a timely fashion.鈥

Students group up for a selfie with a starship robot that has been decorated with a "pumkinbot" halloween skin.
Pumpkinbot makes Halloween one of the most popular times to snap a selfie with a Starship robot.

Noting Northern Virginia鈥檚 changeable weather, the integrative studies major added, 鈥淚've definitely used Starship when it鈥檚 been super cold or hot!鈥

鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to believe that we鈥檝e already been doing deliveries at Mason for four years,鈥 said Chris Neider, director of business development at . 鈥淭he campus community was excited about the technology and the cool factor from the start. We鈥檝e taken what we learned at Mason and have incorporated those lessons across the U.S. We鈥檙e looking forward to the next four years and beyond at Mason!鈥

鈥淪tarship robots allowed Mason to bring an innovative, safe, and convenient dining solution to students鈥攚hich was well-received by the campus community and proved to be extremely helpful during the pandemic,鈥 said Pascal Petter, executive director, auxiliary services, at Mason. 鈥淲e celebrate the milestones achieved thus far and look forward to our collaborative work in the future.鈥

Starship Technologies operates commercially on a daily basis around the world. Its zero-emission robots have made more than four million autonomous deliveries, traveled millions of miles, and make more than 140,000 road crossings every day.

Try Out Starship Yourself!

Download the Starship Food Delivery app today.
Available on both iOS and Android.