By Olivia Chhlang | Reporter
It isn’t just students that stroll on the sidewalks between classes and at all hours of the day. These pedestrians wait to cross roads, and they never cut you off while walking.
They’re called Starship robots — previously Grubhub robots — according to Madeline Anthony, the marketing manager for Baylor Eats.
“The idea behind bringing Starship robots to campus is to provide a convenient and efficient food delivery option for students and the broader campus community,” Anthony said.
The Starship robots can be used by student workers who may not be able to leave their job posts or those who are studying and don’t want to interrupt their grind by leaving to get food.
Baylor students are often captivated by the hard-working little hubs, even if they have never ordered from them, like Pearland freshman Carson Slafka.
“I feel like people get attached to them. They’re kind of cute, to be honest,” Slafka said. “You just see them rolling around, and they stop if you go in front of them. They’re so polite. It’s so funny. I think that has something to do with it.”
The Starship robots are programmed to know the layout of Baylor’s campus. The workers place the order inside the robot and use an iPad to click which location on campus the robot goes to. However, that is easier said than done, according to Moody Library Starbucks employee Monique Aranda.
“There was always a drink spilled or a wrong order. Little things like that that would be harder for [the robots],” Aranda said. “During storms whenever it would rain really hard and we would count on the robot, sometimes it would get stuck or wouldn’t make it.”
Aranda said the company that overtook Grubhub has been slowly getting rid of the robots. The Starbucks in Moody Library no longer uses them due to the number of complaints received in the past about the quality and efficiency of the robots.
The reason for not having ordered from the delivery robot before, Slafka said, is that he’s waiting for the perfect opportunity to try because he doesn’t know how to order from them. Slafka said that he would rather follow the robot to see where it’s delivering to rather than order from them himself.
The complaints Aranda experienced using the robots at Starbucks, along with the nature of some Baylor students’ preference to watch the robots rather than order from them shows that the robots struggle with their job.
“We aren’t doing the robots anymore, and as far as the Panda Express and Chick-fil-A, they’re trying to get rid of them everywhere,” Aranda said.
