SAN DIEGO, CA — The University of California, San Diego is using self-driving cars to deliver mail on campus.
The car is loaded up with mail each morning and programmed with the information that tells it where to go. It makes 13 stops across two of the six residential colleges on campus.
The Contextual Robotics Institute at UCSD and Integrated Procure-to-Pay Solutions at university partnered on the project in an effort to test out new technologies.
Henrik Christensen, the director of the project, said they are trying to understand logistics for what is called “last mile” delivery, or that final step in the delivery between manufacturer and consumer. Since the campus works like a small city, with 65,000 students and staff sharing the same space, the technology has real world application.
“The carts are equipped with some off-the-shelf technology, such as cameras and various sensors. But the algorithms that enable the vehicles to actually share the road with cars and people were developed by UC San Diego researchers,” UCSD said.
The university only has two mail delivery cars right now, but hopes to have a fleet in the future that will help with parking and traffic issues on campus.
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