this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2026
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College campuses across the country will no longer be swarming with tiny rolling robots.

Starship Technologies, a leading delivery bot company, announced earlier this month that it was ending its university operations and redeploying over a thousand of its meal machines. But the news is just starting to sink in, as various partnered universities all issue official communications mourning the program’s end like obituaries for a celebrity’s passing.

The time has come for the takeout drones to hit the big leagues, as the company intends to focus on doing deliveries for grocery chains and restaurants in cities instead. And shut-in, no-tipping undergrads from coast to coast weep.

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[–] nulluser@lemmy.world 61 points 2 months ago (9 children)

And shut-in, no-tipping undergrads from coast to coast weep.

Are you expected to tip the fucking robot?

[–] 0x0@infosec.pub 37 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] MangoCats@feddit.it 3 points 2 months ago

expected to tip the fucking robot?

I think that's more commonly like a sheep.

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 30 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yes.

Once it is tipped on its side, its easier to remove the batteries and motors.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

I’d have 100% done this in college.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 9 points 2 months ago

No, that's the point

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 months ago

I think that’s why they will miss this type of delivery, as you do not tip?

[–] michaelalf@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

That would be the most American thing to do.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

No no, this is a delivery robot.

[–] MangoCats@feddit.it 4 points 2 months ago

After you tip it on its back...

[–] GamingChairModel@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

No, the article is saying that it is why these robots were popular. Because unlike a human delivery person, there was no tip expected for the robots.

[–] AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Would be nice if you could tip the actual cook. Like the food preparation chain is visible on the receipt with boxes for sending a small tip. But only after the meal turned out to be amazing.

But overall it's cool that delivery robots will probably mean an end to tipping culture.

[–] hark@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

As long as it doesn't become expected, but seeing how tips already work, it'll become expected no matter what. I'd probably see reviews complaining about the food tasting like shit but the reviewer leaving the chef "just the standard 20%" and vowing never to eat from there again.

[–] MangoCats@feddit.it 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The world really needs transparency like that - tip your cook, tip the farmer that grew the amazing tomatoes, or stiff 'em all but at least know who they really were. Before placing your order, get a readout of where the fish was caught, and when... identify how close the chocolate's cocoa was grown to toxic lead contamination sites - before you take it off the shelf.

[–] AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I'd love that, that would be the future.

[–] MangoCats@feddit.it 1 points 2 months ago

That would be my future, if you make me king. Since the offers for absolute unflinching loyalty are a bit thin on the ground for the past couple of decades, I'll assume it's probably not the future we're getting.

[–] EliteCloneMike@lemmy.zip 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Right?! That’d be insane to tip it. Like do people tip autonomous vehicles when they use them? I guess if there is really a human operator, like what Waymo did with having human drivers take over from time to time, all while claiming to be autonomous. I guess in that case, tipping might make sense, so long at the tip went to the driver of the vehicle. I don’t know if driver control these small robots ever or not.

[–] titanicx@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I mean waymo never claimed they would not use human operators from time to time, they in fact disclosed that fact. But people skim over things like that and make statements like yours. Just like I'm positive these delivery bots have the same disclosures.

[–] diabetic_porcupine@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Yeah they literally have people remote in and fix random things because obviously random things can go wrong and still require human intervention.