Veriff Collabs With Starship to Drive ID Verification for Autonomous Robot Delivery

Global identity verification provider Veriff is partnering with autonomous delivery services provider Starship Technologies to offer identity verification services for autonomous robot delivery, according to a press release on Thursday (Jan. 20).

Starship Technologies was founded in 2014 by Skype co-founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis to develop small self-driving robotic delivery vehicles. The startup is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with engineering operations in Tallinn, Estonia, and Helsinki, Finland.

Veriff was founded in 2015 and uses artificial intelligence (AI) to provide customized verification flow for businesses. Headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia, the startup is working toward a single digital identity protocol that transcends borders.

See also: Starship Raises $17 Million To Develop Driverless Delivery Robots

The collaboration with Veriff will provide Starship’s fleet of autonomous delivery robots in the U.K. with authentication and re-verification services. Veriff’s technology will add an additional layer of safety and security to Starship’s services, making it the first company to create a fully autonomous end-to-end delivery service for age-restricted items like alcohol and cigarettes, per the announcement.

Starship is striving to reinvent how food and packages are delivered with its app-based, low-emission fully autonomous robotic fleet. With Veriff, age-restricted merchandise is re-authenticated using its AI-powered identity verification platform.

“Partnering with Veriff allows Starship to autonomously deliver age-restricted items in the UK and beyond as we continue to take on new markets and stores at a rapid pace,” Starship Technologies Senior Vice President of Business Development and Sales Ryan Tuohy said in the announcement.

Read more: Global Fraud Risks Reduced With Real Time, Cross Platform ID Verificatio

Autonomous delivery robots from Starship Technologies operate everyday worldwide and complete over 100,000 road crossings daily. As of late 2020, the company’s fleets’ deliveries topped 2 million.

Users can access the Starship Food Delivery app on iOS or Android and choose from a range of food and drink items, and then drop a pin where they want their items sent. Users can watch the robot as it travels to them using an interactive map on the app.

When the robot arrives, users are alerted and can then meet and unlock their delivery through the app once their identity has been verified through Veriff’s seamless biometric authentication technology.

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