FGCU replaces Starship with Avride for campus food delivery. September 22, 2026 Autonomous delivery robots are still a relatively new concept for college campuses. Introduced to FGCU during the Summer 2025 semester, they became an integral part of student's daily life on campus. After operating in several college campuses across the country, executives with FGCU's previous robot delivery company Starship decided they did not want to be in higher education for delivery anymore, to focus on bigger cities. As a result, the company pulled its robots from those campuses, including FGCU. This tasked FGCU to quickly find a replacement and restore a similar presence on campus. "Our goal is to restore a comparable level of service as quickly as possible, while maintaining a focus on accessibility, convenience and innovation in campus dining," said Vice President for Administrative Services & Finance David Vazquez in a June 9 email sent to students and faculty announcing the sudden change. The replacement has arrived. FGCU Dining Services partnered with Avride, an autonomous car and food delivery robot company based in Austin, Texas to provide its delivery service around campus. Story continues below advertisement "From what we can see, robots have become an absolutely essential part of campus life. Students are familiar with them. Students want to use them further, and this really impressive demand shows us that we just need to be there," said Avride Head of Public Affairs Yulia Shveyko. Student Government has also seen the positive impact the robots have had on FGCU. For example, Dunkin Donuts' sales increased multiple percentage points through robot delivery. "It was really disheartening to see them leave so unexpectedly," Student Government Vice President Abe Hoffman said of the Starship robots. "Dining services did a really good job jumping on the opportunity to get these new robots, and I'm just excited that they're going to be back and available for students because I know that our student body was using them." Though the past robots proved to be useful to students, many students also complained about the problems they faced when encountering the robots on their walks to and from classes. The robots would frequently stall out on the road due to its reliance on Wi-Fi and block students' ways overall. "[Avride] addressed a lot of issues that students had with the older robots," Hoffman said. "These new robots don't need Wi-Fi, so they shouldn't be dying on the end of SoVi Bridge. They're going to be smarter." The main reason why the Avride robots are smarter is because of the technology. The company took the technology it implemented in its autonomous cars and transferred it on a smaller scale to the robots. Efficiency is a priority for the company so they make sure the robots operate on a single battery charge, that they're durable and they're equipped with sensors, cameras and lights for extra safety. "This combination of sensors we believe makes our robots really smart and really safe when operating, especially in crowded areas like campuses might be sometimes," Shveyko said. Additionally, they can endure various weather conditions which is important in Florida with its unpredictable rainstorms. Similar to the Starship campus robots, Avride's fleet operates in partnership with GrubHub so students can order food to be delivered from the robots straight from the GrubHub app. On average, it takes 20 minutes for students to receive their food after ordering. The robots are bigger than the previous ones as the company states that six 16-inch pizzas and five 1.5 liter bottles can fit in its storage hatch. They also have digital eyes that are customizable for each individual robot to give it a unique personality. "I know some students were telling me that they wanted to put googly eyes or give the robots names," Hoffman said. "I was thinking maybe we kind of meet the students halfway and customize the eyes and let the students name them and give each one like a unique personality as much as you can with how similarly they're going to operate." Currently, Avride robots are utilized in 25 campuses across the country with plans to integrate into more campuses in the near future. FGCU has 15 robots in total and plans to add more later. Five were activated Sept. 1 and dining services will slowly roll out more to ensure everything runs smoothly. "There is always space for improvement," Shveyko said. "It all comes from the experience we gain through our daily operations on campuses and in the cities as well." Shveyko and the Avride team are open to feedback on how they can enhance the autonomous robot technology and campus delivery experience. To provide your thoughts, reach out to them via email through [email protected]. "We're always checking all the possible opportunities where our robots can bring benefit to the community," Shveyko said. "We really love operating on campuses. We really love working with students. We believe that this relation is mutual."

NHTSA opens safety audit into Tesla Cybercab robotaxis. Cris Tolomia Updated Fri, September 4, 2026 at 5:54 AM PDT * The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an audit of Tesla Cybercab vehicles to review the company's justification for concluding that the robotaxis meet federal vehicle safety requirements. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an audit covering approximately 1,000 Tesla Cybercab vehicles on Friday, scrutinizing how the company justified its conclusion that the robotaxis meet federal vehicle safety requirements, according to Reuters. NHTSA said it would review the grounds for Tesla's certification, including whether the company concluded that certain Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards were simply not applicable to the Cybercab in the first place. NHTSA pointed out that the Cybercab is missing standard driver-operated hardware such as a steering wheel, brake pedal, accelerator pedal, and mirrors. The probe came hours after Tesla began commercial deployment of a small number of Cybercabs in Austin, Texas, on Thursday. State records showed that as of Friday morning, Tesla had registered 420 autonomous vehicles in Texas, 45 of which were Cybercabs. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. Automakers traditionally self-certify whether their vehicles comply with federal motor vehicle safety standards. Tesla VP of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy had said the Cybercab was designed to meet all federal safety standards from the start, allowing the company to self-certify without seeking a special exemption, according to TechCrunch. The Department of Transportation has proposed removing manual control requirements for vehicles designed to operate autonomously, though those rules remain in effect. The inquiry echoes a situation NHTSA encountered in 2022, when Amazon-owned Zoox self-certified a cube-shaped robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals, prompting the agency to open a similar audit process. That investigation slowed Zoox's path to commercialization, according to TechCrunch. Zoox spent years navigating the exemption process before receiving federal approval in July 2026 and opening a commercial ride service in Las Vegas. Whether Tesla faces a comparable timeline is unclear. Tesla put driverless Cybercabs on public streets in Austin ahead of a planned event Thursday where the company shared more details about its rollout. The two-seat vehicle was built without a steering wheel or pedals and manufactured at Tesla's Giga Texas facility. CEO Elon Musk had said material revenue from the Cybercab was unlikely before at least 2027. NHTSA has at least two other active probes examining whether Tesla's driver-assistance systems contain safety defects. The agency also recently opened an investigation into Avride, a self-driving startup operating on Uber's platform, after 16 crashes involving its autonomous vehicles in Texas.

New campus food delivery robots keep their eyes on the sidewalk- literally. By Morgan Lane, Editor-in-Chief and Edwardina Beeko, Contributing Writer A new fleet of robots developed by Avride, an autonomous vehicle development company, is rolling across campus. The AI powered food delivery bots are partnering with Grubhub to pick up where the previous Starship delivery robots left off. "Avride's partnership with Towson and Grubhub grew from its existing relationship with the food delivery platform," said Laura Lawton, Avride's head of communications. The new robots are designed for year-round outdoor operation, including rain and moderate snow. They also include something that the Starship fleet didn't have, eyes. Each Avride delivery bot has two LED "eyes" that can showcase different emotions. A small camera in between the eyes detect objects and motion for pedestrian safety. "Their water-resistant construction, suspension and low maximum speed of 5 mph help them navigate everyday sidewalk conditions safely," Lawton said. Yet, students expressed mixed feelings toward the new delivery bots. Senior Irvin Sosa-Perez said he hoped the Avride robots would improve the long wait times he experienced with the Starship vehicles. Instead, he said waiting over an hour for the autonomous robot to deliver his food made him less likely to use the service again. "There's a one and done for me," he said. For students familiar with the previous Starship robots, the change sparked curiosity. "I know that there were a lot of issues that we dealt with last year with them running into buildings," said sophomore Anayah Sparks. "I was also interested to see what the new design would be like. Sparks noticed the new robots around the Glen Complex and has not seen them have the same problems as the previous Starship robots. "I haven't seen any do the wacky things that they used to do," Sparks said. "I would like to try it out more just because it's new." The transition to Avride is part of Aramark's continued efforts to make campus dining easier and more accessible, according to Rich Coburn, Aramark's Mid-Atlantic district manager. "While students may notice a new look and new robots around campus, our focus throughout the transition has remained the same," he said in an emailed statement to The Towerlight. "We're looking forward to seeing Avride become part of the everyday campus experience."