If you live in Washington, D. C., or Redwood, Calif., you may have glimpsed a small, boxy robot rolling along a local sidewalk, minding it’s own business, but attracting the attention of many a curious onlooker. The autonomous machines were part of a pilot program last year by Starship Technologies focused on delivering meals from local restaurants in dozens of cities around the world.
“Today, more than ever, people lead a busy and diverse life,” Lex Bayer, Starship’s CEO, said in a statement online. “The hassle of needing to rearrange your life for a delivery will become a thing of the past. You don’t have to switch your working from home day, reschedule meetings, visit a locker, drive to a post office or contact a deliveryman all because of a missed delivery.”
The package delivery service is not available to everyone just yet. The company said it’s rolling out the service in Milton Keynes, England. The wheeled robots have a top speed of 4 mph and can detect obstacles from as far as 30 feet away. “The robot can operate through just about anything,” Nick Handrick, head of operations for Starship’s D. C. office, told The Washington Post's Maura Judkis last year. “If you had something in the way—a stick—it’s able to climb the edges of a road.”
By giving customers control of when deliveries occur, Starship Technologies is offering its service as a way to battle package theft. In its announcement, the company cited statistics from a Wakefield Research Poll for Comcast last year that found that 3 in 10 Americans who live in houses or townhouses have had packages stolen.
To sign up for the service, which costs a little more than $10 per month, customers need to download the company's app. Customers then create a “Starship Delivery Address,” a unique address inside a Starship facility, instead of a residence, where they can have packages sent from places such as Amazon, com. Once a package is delivered to the Starship address, customers receive a text that allows them to schedule a home delivery via robot.
1.Which can best replace the underlined word “hassle” in paragraph 2?A.failure | B.expectation | C.safety | D.trouble |
A.There is a limit to its service area. |
B.It takes longer to deliver packages. |
C.It covers a short distance each time. |
D.It can’t sense the barriers 20 feet away. |
A.The company shortens the delivery hour. |
B.The package is delivered to the house directly. |
C.Its delivery time is in the control of customers. |
D.The customers are informed of its delivery time in advance. |
A.It is a real home address of the customers. |
B.It can arrange delivery robots for the customers. |
C.It is a cheaper solution to the delivery of packages. |
D.It sends the packages mainly to some shopping platforms. |
同类型试题
y = sin x, x∈R, y∈[–1,1],周期为2π,函数图像以 x = (π/2) + kπ 为对称轴
y = arcsin x, x∈[–1,1], y∈[–π/2,π/2]
sin x = 0 ←→ arcsin x = 0
sin x = 1/2 ←→ arcsin x = π/6
sin x = √2/2 ←→ arcsin x = π/4
sin x = 1 ←→ arcsin x = π/2
y = sin x, x∈R, y∈[–1,1],周期为2π,函数图像以 x = (π/2) + kπ 为对称轴
y = arcsin x, x∈[–1,1], y∈[–π/2,π/2]
sin x = 0 ←→ arcsin x = 0
sin x = 1/2 ←→ arcsin x = π/6
sin x = √2/2 ←→ arcsin x = π/4
sin x = 1 ←→ arcsin x = π/2