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The University of Texas at Dallas has reached an agreement with Starship Technologies that will see the company's delivery robots deployed on the Dallas campus.
According to UT Dallas Dining Services, the university's food service provider, Chartwells, partnered with Starship Technologies to bring 30 robots to the UT Dallas campus with the program officially launching on December 3.
The service is available to students, staff and faculty that download the Starship Deliveries app from either the Apple or Google Play stores. All orders placed for robot delivery will carry a $1.99 delivery fee.
At the start of the program, UT Dallas has included 10 dining locations from which Starship delivery orders can be placed. That initial roster includes both franchise locations like Papa John’s, Panda Express, Firehouse Subs, Einstein Bros. Bagels, and Halal Shack, along with a host of on-campus university run dining locations. UT Dallas plans to add more retail venues to the app in the future.
Hours of operation for the delivery robots will vary by participating venues, and users will be able to view which venues are open and available for deliveries at that time from the app.
The Starship Deliveries app currently accepts debit/credit transactions only, but UT Dallas already has plans in place to accept Meal Money -- UT Dallas' declining balance funds available on the Comet Card student ID.
To place an order for robot delivery, users select their delivery location by dropping a pin on the campus map inside the Starship Deliveries app. Once an order is placed, the app will update the user of the robot’s location in real time by enabling them to follow the robot's trek across campus.
Once the robot arrives to the designated delivery location, the app sends an alert to the user providing them with a prompt to unlock the robot via the app.
UT Dallas is the latest university to join the growing roster of campuses to deploy Starship Technologies' delivery robots. For more on the delivery robots, check out our previous coverage.
