This chapter examines the use of app-based personal delivery devices (PDDS) in communities and on college campuses in the US. The chapter analyzes the state and local rules and regulations in place to accommodate the usage of such devices. Furthermore, the chapter discusses liability issues arising from incidents and accidents with vehicles and pedestrians and security issues made vulnerable from usage of these devices. Last, the chapter addresses how campuses and surrounding communities can respond to these new delivery systems in an effort to maintain public safety while also allowing consumers access to meals at a time when people faced a greater risk than ever before when visiting grocery stores and restaurants.
TopIntroduction
For millions of people around the world the global pandemic, brought on by the Covid-19 virus, changed the way people accessed goods and services. Many of these changes were not entirely new, but rather the pandemic led to rapid changes in consumer demand. Increasing numbers of people purchased groceries for pickup at retailers, which had been provided by some stores before the pandemic, while other stores were quick to adapt to the new dynamic environment that directly challenged their ability to survive as a business.
On March 11th, 2020, the NBA announced the cancellation of the Jazz vs. Thunder game minutes before the start due to a player’s Covid infection. The next day the NBA announced the cancellation of the remainder of the season. By the 13th of March, seven states and the District of Columbia ordered all schools closed to curtail the spread of the virus. More closures would quickly follow suit in the days ahead. On college campuses, changes were abundant and, in many cases, overnight. College courses were quickly moved entirely online facilitated by video conferencing applications, campus dining services shuttered and campus housing facilities scrambled to send students home.
Given the risk of Covid infection associated with person-to-person contact, app-based food delivery services exploded in terms of users. While services such as Uber Eats, Door Dash, and Grubhub all preceded the shutdowns brought on by the pandemic, client usage of these services in the U.S. jumped by nearly 200 percent during the pandemic (Ahuja et al., 2021).
Back on college campuses, there was a new entrant to the meal delivery service market; Starship Technologies. Starship Technologies differed from other app-based meal delivery services by eliminating the human needed for delivery. Starship Technologies uses a multilayered robotic system based on GPS, ground-based sensors, and wireless communications to deliver its meals to customers on nearly a dozen college campuses throughout the US. This system offers the ability to greatly reduce human-to-human contact to deliver much-needed food at a time when cafeterias were shut down and going to the grocery store was thought of as risky.
App-based meal delivery services in general, and Starship Technologies in particular, are disruptive innovations in the food service industry. Disruptive innovations are those that successfully target a segment of a market that is overlooked and gain a foothold in the market by delivering more-suitable functionality, often at a lower cost (Christensen et al., 2015). For decades, in most cities and surrounding areas (save New York and Los Angeles), meal delivery services were largely limited to pizza chains and a small number of sub-sandwich shops. Customers desiring other types of meals, from fast food to typical “dine-in” restaurants, had to resort to the drive-thru or carry-out. Either way, the customer was required to visit the establishment to pick up their order from another human. This opened the door for app-based meal delivery services, such as Grubhub and Door Dash, to focus on customers whose needs were unmet, and those who wanted a different variety of food than was currently available for delivery. These new delivery services catered to a large variety of clients and thus delivered food from a large variety of restaurants, though they shared one thing in common with current delivery provided by pizza and sub-sandwich joints; the need for a human to execute the delivery.
Enter Starship Technologies (Starship hereafter), and other Personal Delivery Devices (PDDs). Starship eliminated the need for a human to execute the delivery and, as such, during the global pandemic, became widely used on college campuses where it was available, and became available on more campuses throughout the U.S. as the pandemic raged on. Starship, in particular, more than tripled its growth in 2021, operating a fleet of more than 1,700 robots daily, according to a March 2022 press release from the company. While previously Starship operated exclusively on college campuses, in 2022 it announced that it would be offering services in Pleasanton, California in partnership with Save Mart, the second community with its delivery service after Modesto.