Filenews 21 November 2025
Uber Technologies will make robot deliveries a reality in Europe for the first time through its partnership with Starship Technologies, starting in parts of Britain in December.
In particular, in the first phase, customers from the English cities of Leeds and Sheffield will be able to receive deliveries with robots (where delivery will be done on the sidewalk), if they order from selected merchants on the Uber Eats delivery platform, as Uber said in a statement.
Starship's robots can complete deliveries in less than 30 minutes for distances of up to two miles, according to Uber.
The company plans to expand its service areas in the future, as he pointed out, noting that it will add more markets in Europe in 2026 and the US in 2027.
Uber has entered into more than a dozen partnerships as it "bets" on a hybrid future, where its rides and deliveries will be completed by a combination of people and driverless vehicles. The company, in fact, is increasingly focusing on deliveries: Analysts expect this unit to account for about 47% of Uber's gross bookings for 2025, according to Bloomberg.
With its other robotics partners, Uber currently offers autonomous deliveries for thousands of merchants in nine cities across the U.S. and Japan. The partnership with Starship will allow Uber to implement its hybrid vision in a variety of markets, starting with the increasingly competitive European region.
Starship, headquartered in San Francisco, operates the world's largest fleet of autonomous deliveries, according to the announcement, with more than 2,700 robots in more than 270 locations. It is already working with competitors Uber, Bolt Technology and Grubhub, to make deliveries to parts of Europe and to campuses in the US, respectively, with its six-wheeled carts that are roughly the size of a refrigerator.
Meanwhile, Uber's biggest competitor in the US, DoorDash, has increased its presence in Europe through the acquisition of British delivery app Deliveroo in October and Wolt in 2022. DoorDash piloted robot deliveries in partnership with Coco Robotics in Helsinki earlier this year and later introduced them in Los Angeles and Chicago.
