BGSU replaces Starship with Avride delivery robots

Bowling Green State University students, faculty and staff will soon have a new way to receive their favorite campus meals as BGSU Dining transitions its robot delivery service to Avride in partnership with Grubhub, featuring expanded on-campus delivery options and larger carrying capacity. The new partnership between BGSU dining and Avride will create better integration with university meal plans, Falcon Dollars and BG1 Bucks in addition to accepting credit and debit cards. Through Grubhub, the learning community will have access to more on-campus dining options, with the ability to place and track an order all in one app. Avride, a leader in autonomous driving technology, is replacing Starship, which earlier this year ended all of its college and university contracts. Avride is already active at BGSU making the university the fourth nationally to sign with the company. At first, the new delivery robots will provide service to on-campus locations only to optimize their efficiency, but the university could expand the operation over time. 'Our goal is to make dining on campus as convenient and connected as possible for our students,' said Jon Zachrich, director of marketing, communications and technology for BGSU Dining. 'The transition to Avride and Grubhub will create a more seamless ordering experience while giving BGSU students, faculty and staff greater flexibility in how they access their favorite campus meals.' Avride robots offer greater capacity, allowing them to carry multiple meals and a wider range of menu items, including six extra-large (16.5-inch) pizzas and five 1.5-liter bottles at a time. The expanded capacity is designed to better support busy class schedules, group study sessions, late-night meals and other moments for convenient access to campus dining. BGSU learning community members will continue to have access to many of the same campus dining brands and menu favorites they currently enjoy, plus new options like meal plan purchases at the Bowen-Thompson Student Union Starbucks location. The transition to the new delivery robots is part of BGSU Dining's continued commitment to providing modern dining solutions that fit the way students live, study and move throughout campus.