Delivery robot tracker 2026: where pavement robots and delivery drones run

Delivery robots have been rolling along British pavements since 2018, but 2026 has been the year they spread. Just Eat started using them, Deliveroo brought a second robot company to Britain, and the government named "pavement robots" in a speech about new rules. At the same time, a pilot in Sheffield was paused and a leading pedestrian charity launched a campaign to keep robots off pavements altogether.

This tracker sets out where things stand, company by company. It is a companion to our robotaxi tracker, and we will refresh it each month.

How to read this tracker: "live" means members of the public can order in at least part of the area. "Pilot" means a time-limited or small trial. Fleet sizes and delivery counts are the companies' own figures unless we say otherwise. You usually cannot choose a robot: the app decides, and only if you live inside a small service zone.

At a glance

The UK: where you can get a robot delivery

Britain is one of the oldest delivery robot markets in the world. Starship, a company founded in Estonia by two of Skype's co-founders, began commercial service in Milton Keynes in April 2018. It now says it serves customers in Leeds, Wakefield, Greater Manchester, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes. Starship told the robotics news site IZON in September that it has around 300 robots on UK streets.

Just Eat: Sunderland, Barnsley, Milton Keynes and Cambourne

Just Eat is now Starship's most active UK partner. The two firms started a takeaway pilot in Sunderland on 25 February 2026, with 12 restaurants and more than 11,000 households in the city centre. In April they added north-east Barnsley, starting in Carlton, Athersley, Monk Bretton and Lundwood. Just Eat also uses the robots in Milton Keynes.

In October, Just Eat added Cambourne in Cambridgeshire, covering more than 12,000 residents. It was the first trial area where Just Eat did not already offer grocery delivery. Morrisons joined at the same time. Its Cambourne supermarket delivers through the robots, alongside three Morrisons Daily shops in Sunderland and Milton Keynes. To order, open the Just Eat app and look for the robot delivery option. Orders are limited to what fits in the robot, which Morrisons describes as about twelve items.

Uber Eats: Leeds

Starship and Uber Eats announced a global partnership in November 2025, with Leeds named as the first city, from December 2025. The robots cover trips of up to two miles. Uber Eats shows an "autonomous delivery" opt-in, but there is no guarantee you will get a robot. When openDemocracy placed an Uber Eats order in Leeds this autumn, a human courier turned up. Starship says it now works with Uber Eats in six English towns and cities, but it has not published the full list.

A Sheffield pilot with Uber Eats ran from March 2026 for about five months. The BBC reported that robots there had flags snapped off and were sprayed with graffiti. Starship "paused" the service in August. It said this was a commercial decision at the natural end of the pilot, and that vandalism was not a factor.

Co-op and Tesco: check before you rely on it

Co-op was Starship's original UK grocery partner, from Milton Keynes in 2018 to towns including Northampton, Bedford and Leeds. In February 2026 Starship still described Co-op as a partner across its UK areas. But openDemocracy reported on 6 November that it "understands Co-op no longer works with Starship". Staff at a Co-op in Adel, north Leeds, told the site the robots had stopped there a few weeks earlier. Neither company has announced an end, so we list Co-op robot delivery as unconfirmed. Tesco ran a Starship service from its Kingston store in Milton Keynes in 2019, and we could not confirm that it still runs. If you live in a Starship area, the Starship app is the best place to see which shops it serves today.

Deliveroo and Coco: Canary Wharf first

Deliveroo, which DoorDash now owns, has signed an exclusive UK deal with Coco Robotics, a Los Angeles company whose pink, four-wheeled robots already run in several US cities. Deliveries began in Canary Wharf in October, from a small group of places in Wood Wharf such as Patty&Bun, Signorelli and Beam. Milton Keynes, Leeds, Stockton-on-Tees and Nottingham are due to follow "in the coming weeks and months". Deliveroo says most orders will still go to its human riders.

Coco also shares data on pavement hazards with BlindSquare, a navigation app for blind and partially sighted people. Its robots log things like toppled e-scooters and building works.

Coming next

• Stevenage: Hertfordshire County Council outlined a Starship trial in a mapped, geo-fenced area in July, due to start in late summer. Starship pays for the trial, and the council can pause or end it at any time. We have not yet confirmed that it has started.
• Coco's four new areas: the mayors for the East Midlands and Tees Valley have both welcomed the plans.
• Road-going robots: London start-up Minimal has unveiled Bot, a small self-driving electric van built to run on the road rather than the pavement. It plans supervised road trials from spring 2027 (Q2) and first customer pilots late in 2027.

Are delivery robots legal on UK pavements?

There is no straight answer, which is the problem. The UK has no law written for delivery robots. Highway law bans "carriages" from pavements, but it does not say whether an autonomous delivery robot counts as one. The government accepts this. In June 2026, transport minister Lord Hendy told Parliament that "the current legal framework does not provide the certainty businesses need to invest".

In practice, robots run where councils agree to them. Starship has had an agreement with Cambridgeshire County Council since 2022 to operate in Cambourne, and Hertfordshire set conditions for its Stevenage trial. Living Streets says some trials have also gone ahead without permission.

The government has promised a new "Low-speed Zero Emission Vehicle" category to cover e-scooters, other micromobility and pavement robots "when Parliamentary time allows". It says those rules will be designed so that any harm to blind and partially sighted people is mitigated. Then on 7 September, Chancellor John Healey said he wants new "sandboxing powers" ready next year, so businesses can test technologies "from pavement robots to drones" that current rules hold back. No law has yet been published.

What Living Streets says

Living Streets, the UK charity for people on foot, is the strongest voice against. Its position is plain: it "does not want to see delivery robots on our pavements". It argues that "pavements are for people" and that the robots put pedestrians at risk, especially people with mobility issues.

Its main concerns are:

• Space: robots add clutter to pavements already squeezed by pavement parking, e-scooters and charging points. The charity says this hits wheelchair users, people with sight loss, older people and parents with pushchairs hardest.
• Liability and privacy: it says it is unclear who is responsible when something goes wrong, and the robots carry cameras in public spaces.
• Consent: it says private firms are using public space for profit, often without proper public consultation or democratic oversight.
• Green claims: it calls claims that the robots help sustainability "overstated".

It points to robots being banned in Toronto and parts of Chicago, a robot that hit a man on a mobility scooter in Los Angeles, and one that hit a dog in Bristol. Living Streets wants the government to leave autonomous delivery robots out of its micromobility plans and keep these vehicles off pavements. It has also launched a campaign asking people to tell their council that pavements are "for people not robots".

What the operators say

The companies argue that robots cut car and van trips for small orders, and add capacity rather than replace couriers. Starship told openDemocracy that it makes "little environmental sense to transport a 2lb meal in a two tonne car". On liability, it said "liability always rests with us" and that it holds comprehensive insurance.

On accessibility, Starship told IZON it has worked with RNIB, Guide Dogs and Leonard Cheshire. It changed its flag from pale yellow to bright orange with pulsing lights after RNIB advice, and says its robots recognise wheelchairs and mobility scooters. It also says up to 25% of its regular UK customers have a disability or live with someone who does. That is the company's own survey figure. Just Eat and Deliveroo both say robots are there to complement human couriers, and Just Eat says its robot partners are responsible for operating them safely.

Starship is blunt about the cost of uncertainty. Its public affairs chief told IZON in September that the UK, once its biggest market, has "dropped down the priority" because of unclear rules. She contrasted the UK's roughly 300 robots with more than 1,000 in Finland, which set a national safety framework after a pilot.

The debate has turned sharp. This autumn, Starship accused Living Streets of "selectively editing" a video of one of its robots colliding with a wheelchair user, and said it would report the charity to the regulator if the record was not corrected, according to openDemocracy.

Delivery drones in the UK

Drones are further behind than pavement robots in the UK, because flying beyond the pilot's line of sight needs special permission from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Amazon Prime Air started its first service outside the US in Darlington, County Durham, in February 2026. It is tightly limited. You must live within 7.5 miles of the warehouse and have a garden, yard or driveway. The parcel must weigh under 5lb (about 2.2kg) and fit in a large shoebox. After more than 500 flights, Amazon applied to the CAA in September to cover the whole town. In July, one of its drones came down in a Darlington garden, and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch opened an inquiry. Amazon said nobody was hurt and that an object on top of a moving vehicle had touched the drone.

The UK's other regular drone deliveries are not for shoppers. In London, NHS hospital samples now fly between hospital sites, linking Guy's and St Thomas', St George's in Tooting and the Synnovis lab hub at Blackfriars. The service is run by Apian with Wing and Matternet drones. We explain how it works in our guide to the NHS drone corridor.

The US: where sidewalk robots are biggest

American cities have taken to delivery robots much faster than British ones, partly because several states, such as Pennsylvania and Arizona, have passed laws written for them.

• Serve Robotics runs in Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and Miami. It launched in Washington DC and San Jose with DoorDash in August, and added Grubhub orders in Chicago, Los Angeles and Alexandria, Virginia. It has also long worked with Uber Eats.
• Coco says it has about 1,000 robots across seven US cities and Helsinki. Its partners DoorDash and Wolt use it in Los Angeles, San Jose, Chicago, Miami, Washington DC and Helsinki. It is also in Jersey City, and in a 12-month Hoboken pilot announced in August.
• Avride is expanding with the restaurant group Wonder on the Grubhub app in Jersey City, Hoboken, Arlington County in Virginia and Philadelphia. It also runs on US university campuses, including 120 robots at Ohio State University.
• Robot.com, reported by Next City to be the former Kiwibot, runs on 20 US university campuses through Grubhub. It says it has made more than 350,000 campus deliveries.
• Starship said in February that it operates on dozens of US university campuses. It and Uber plan to bring Uber Eats robot deliveries to US cities in 2027.

US drone delivery is also scaling. Zipline raised $1.5 billion in November and says it made more than a million deliveries in Dallas-Fort Worth this year alone. Walmart plans 300 more Zipline sites, and Uber is aiming for a million Zipline deliveries a day by 2029. Those are the companies' targets, not results.

What to watch next

• Whether Coco and Deliveroo reach Milton Keynes, Leeds, Stockton-on-Tees and Nottingham before Christmas.
• Whether Starship and Co-op confirm what has happened to their partnership.
• Details of the government's sandboxing powers, and any sign of the Low-speed Zero Emission Vehicle law.
• The CAA's decision on Amazon's bid to cover all of Darlington, and the AAIB's report on July's drone crash.
• The Stevenage trial, and any new councils that sign up.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get a delivery robot in the UK?

Only in a few places. Starship robots deliver through Just Eat in Sunderland, Barnsley, Milton Keynes and Cambourne, and through Uber Eats in Leeds. Deliveroo uses Coco robots in Canary Wharf, London. You have to live inside a small service zone, and the app decides whether a robot or a courier brings your order.

Are delivery robots legal on UK pavements?

Their legal status is unclear. There is no law written for them, and highway law bans "carriages" from pavements without saying whether robots count. Trials run with council agreement. The government has promised a new vehicle category for pavement robots "when Parliamentary time allows".

Which supermarkets use delivery robots in the UK?

Morrisons uses Starship robots through Just Eat at its Cambourne supermarket and three Morrisons Daily shops in Sunderland and Milton Keynes. Co-op was Starship's main grocery partner for years, but openDemocracy reported in November that the partnership may have ended. Tesco ran a trial in Milton Keynes in 2019.

Why does Living Streets oppose delivery robots?

The pedestrian charity says pavements are for people. It argues the robots add clutter and put pedestrians at risk, especially disabled people, older people and parents with pushchairs. It also raises liability, privacy and the lack of public consent, and wants the robots kept off pavements in future rules.

Does Amazon deliver by drone in the UK?

Only in Darlington, County Durham, in a limited trial that began in February 2026. Customers must live within 7.5 miles of the warehouse, have a garden or driveway, and order items under 5lb. Amazon has asked the CAA to let it cover the whole town.

How fast do delivery robots go?

In the UK they usually travel at up to 4mph, around walking pace, according to Living Streets. Starship's robots handle trips of up to about two miles.

Keep exploring

• Robotaxi tracker: where you can ride a driverless taxi
• Inside the NHS drone corridor: how patient samples now fly across London
• When a robot does harm, who is liable?
• More UK robotics news