Starship Technologies and Uber Technologies announce a global partnership to transform last-mile logistics with a fleet of large-scale autonomous robots. The rollout will begin in the United Kingdom by the end of the year, then expand to several European countries in 2026 and the United States in 2027.
The agreement will allow Uber Eats to integrate a technology that has already been extensively tested: Starship robots have in fact surpassed the 9 million deliveries, with a current fleet of 2.700 unit destined to overcome the 12.000 by 2027The operational start is imminent: the first autonomous deliveries will start in December in Leeds, in the north of England, with robots in Level 4 autonomy, capable of covering up to two miles in under 30 minutes.
“We're building the infrastructure that will define the next generation of urban logistics,” said Ahti Heinla, co-founder and CEO of Starship. Sarfraz Maredia, Uber's Global Head of Autonomous Services, echoed his sentiments: “Autonomy is a central component of Uber Eats' future, and with Starship, we're taking it to global scale.”
The added value of the collaboration lies in the real experience accumulated by Starship: the more than 100.000 road crossings daily and a dataset of about 200 million crossings They provide a unique foundation for the continuous training of AI models. After eleven years of development, the company has achieved high levels of safety reliability, multi-country regulatory approvals, all-weather operation, and economic sustainability of the service.
Founded in 2014 by Skype entrepreneurs Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis, Starship has raised 280 million dollars total, of which 50 million in October 2025, consolidating its global leadership in the autonomous delivery sector.
For Uber, which operates in over 10.000 cities and has completed more than 68 billion trips, the agreement represents a decisive step toward a more efficient, accessible, and automated delivery model. With the integration of the two platforms, autonomous delivery becomes a global project for the first time.
