After five months of piloting delivery droids in Greenwich, food delivery marketplace Just Eat has successfully launched its self-driving home delivery robots in London. These delivery droids mark could open up the global delivery industry for further automation.

Just Eat partnered with Starship Technologies to realise this automated home delivery system through six-wheel pavement droids. The team tested the technology over the past five months in Greenwich, with the first live delivery having taken place today. The company expects to roll the programme across London in 2017.

The first order was placed by Greenwich resident, Simone, at a local Turkish takeaway, Taksim Meze. According to a statement from Just Eat, the process started with the restaurant manager requesting that a robot make the delivery. A local robot then travelled to the restaurant while the meal was being prepared. The restaurant manager then placed the meal in the robot’s cargo hold, upon which the customer received a text message to let her know her order was en route, as she would with a human delivery driver. The text message sent via robot includes a unique link to open the cargo hold of the robot once it arrived at her door.

While customers will not yet be able to choose robot delivery on the app, Greenwich residents who order a takeaway online through Just Eat will increasingly be serviced by the technology as the service continues to roll out.