{"id":187207,"date":"2025-10-09T04:34:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T04:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/187207\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T04:34:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T04:34:06","slug":"the-co-ops-all-singing-all-dancing-delivery-robots-robots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/187207\/","title":{"rendered":"The Co-op\u2019s all-singing, all-dancing delivery robots | Robots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Starship Technologies\u2019 robot delivery vehicles (\u2018Delivery robots will happen\u2019: Skype co-founder on his fast-growing venture Starship, 4 October<\/a>) were introduced to\u00a0Sale, Greater Manchester, by Co-op stores about two years ago<\/a>. Though their use has dwindled\u00a0(their size limits them to smallish deliveries), a few still cluster outside each Co-op.<\/p>\n

They have a charm of their own, and I\u00a0feel quite maternal about them. I\u00a0worry about their safety and have\u00a0escorted a robot across a pedestrian crossing so that the cars would stop for it.<\/p>\n

They can sing too! Once, the dog and I caught up with a robot which (I am tempted to write \u201cwho\u201d) was struggling up a very small incline. When it finally made it to the top, it stopped, as if to catch its breath. \u201cOi,\u201d I told it, \u201cDo something. I\u2019m trying to video you.\u201d It trundled a short way up the path, turned, and, singing Baby Shark, zigzagged back\u00a0towards me.<\/p>\n

My video was hopeless. The dog was tugging at the lead and barking frantically. Whether her behaviour was because of the performance or the\u00a0sight of another dog further away, I do not know.
Nell Steele
Sale, Greater Manchester<\/p>\n

Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please email<\/a> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starship Technologies\u2019 robot delivery vehicles (\u2018Delivery robots will happen\u2019: Skype co-founder on his fast-growing venture Starship, 4 October)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-187207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}