At the start of the fall semester, FGCU Dining Services saw the full-scale rollout of Starship’s autonomous food delivery robots in a three-way partnership between Starship, Grubhub and FGCU Dining Services. The partnership was spearheaded by members of the student government and adds FGCU to the growing list of over 60 universities in Starship’s portfolio.
The previous Student Government administration conceptualized the service under President Ryan Kaczynski and it has now come to fruition under new president Gianna Ihuoma. Ihuoma expressed her excitement about the service during the unveiling of Starship’s fleet at the Boardwalk on June 24.
“We’re very excited for students to have this,” said Giovanna DeMarco, FGCU student body vice president. “It’s a very convenient option for dining on campus and elevates us as a whole at the university.”
However, other news organizations and watchdog groups have raised concerns about their integration into campuses.
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An article by 404 Media, a technology watchdog publication, highlighted both how the University of North Carolina was asked to accommodate the robots, including making sure students photographed using the service had “a Healthy-Looking BMI,” in addition to problems faced by the bots on the campus.
“They take up the pathway and have almost run into me multiple times,” said freshman Travis Miller.
The Starship robots have had a significant number of problems since their debut, with several robots getting stuck in the middle of sidewalks and crosswalks. Others have taken damage from harsh Southwest Florida weather themselves and gone off-road.
“I was out here tabling with one of my clubs on the library lawn, and there’s one [robot] kinda running by with one wheel” senior Yannick Petit said.
These problems have compounded into extended wait times and delays in getting food delivered to on-campus dormitories in South Village and North Lake Village.
“It took forever, one of the times I ordered, I had to go over to Cuban Connections to see if my order was messed up,” said junior Genevieve Presti. “It took like 30 to 40 minutes.”
The Starship robots deliver food from every on-campus restaurant, as well as the Boardwalk and SoVi located in each campus living area. Delivery times are dependent on foot traffic, distance and robots available.
“I ordered it, expecting it to take that hour, but it only took like 40, 30 minutes,” said sophomore Hailey Ray.”
According to a 2019 news release from Starship detailing the robots on college campuses, deliveries at universities are expected to take 15 minutes or less.
Eagle News reached out to FGCU regarding the issues surrounding the Starship robots and whether they will be resolved, but did not receive an answer by the deadline. The robots have had their own issues integrating here on FGCU’s campus and sharing space with students. Many on campus are hoping the problems get resolved quickly.
“They’re very annoying when I’m trying to get past one of the sidewalks, and they’re not sure when to go,” freshman Pedro Prado said. “It’s very hard to predict their behavior.”