Unicorn Squad girls get up close with Starship delivery robots

Starship Technologies hosted a group of Unicorn Squad girls at its Tallinn headquarters, bringing together two very different yet closely connected parts of Estonia’s technology story. Unicorn Squad focuses on getting girls interested in science and engineering early, through hands-on building and experimentation.

Founded in Tallinn in 2014 by Skype engineers, Starship has grown into the world’s leading autonomous delivery robotics company. Its robots now operate across cities, university campuses and industrial sites globally, completing millions of deliveries and travelling millions of kilometres while making deliveries more efficient and sustainable.

Walking through the headquarters, the most striking thing was not how futuristic it felt, but how practical everything was. It didn’t feel like they were building robots for demonstration halls or tech expos. They build robots that have to cross real streets, survive weather and coexist with everything that happens at pavement level. The robots move at pedestrian speed, which sounds modest until you realise they are navigating crossings, pedestrians, pets, traffic rules, snow, rain and everything else a typical street can throw at them. Their strength lies in reliability in ordinary environments.

One of the first things the girls asked was why a robot is better than a human delivering food in a car. The answer was pretty straightforward because in many situations, robots can be faster. They also produce less pollution because they are electric and often cheaper to operate. None of it was framed as replacing people, but as solving a logistics problem differently.

Then came the question from one girl that changed the room slightly. What does the world look like through robot eyes?

The Starship team showed us footage from robots working in different parts of the world. Within minutes, the group moved virtually from Tallinn to Northern Finland, where robots were operating in deep snow, and then to Florida, where they navigate heat, pavements and wildlife. The team mentioned that robots have encountered alligators on delivery routes in the United States, which is not something most robotics roadmaps plan for at the beginning.

Global robotics seems to be anything but dealing with perfect conditions. They handle endless variations of complicated ones. Robots need to work safely around wheelchairs, uneven pavements and, in parts of the UK, even avoid spooking horses on country roads.

The girls were also interested in failure scenarios. There are strict privacy rules, so not everyone can access delivery address data. Robots can call for help themselves if they encounter problems. Snow remains one of the biggest technical challenges. The hardest remote task is getting a robot unstuck from deep snow without someone physically being there.

The trickiest thing to teach robots is not movement but judgement. Traffic rules, unpredictable human behaviour and unusual street situations are significantly more complex to teach than basic navigation. On top of that, each country has different regulatory and operating rules, which makes scaling robotics more complex than people often expect.

The girls also asked about the worst incidents (with a glint in their eyes that it better be funny). Robots share space with humans, which comes with all the usual unpredictability. There have been cases of robots ending up under trains, and some have ended up in lakes in Finland, but more commonly, incidents happen the other way around, such as cyclists riding into robots and injuring themselves.

The girls were curious whether people try to steal robots. Some have tried, but alarms and GPS tracking make that problematic. In most cases, curiosity is a bigger motivator than anything else. From what we heard, no business competitors have tried to steal one to learn about its inner workings.

Right now, robots can operate in six languages, although technically they could support many more. Some robots can also be programmed to do lighter things, like sing Christmas songs. Some have had seasonal decorations, including reindeer stickers. It’s not essential to the service, but it does say something about how these rather cute-looking machines live in public spaces rather than in isolated technical environments.

One of the girls asked how robots can work all day if humans can’t. The answer involves battery management, rotation between units and continuous monitoring by support teams.

Behind the small machines is an extensive operational system. One robot takes about 18 hours to assemble. Hundreds of new robots are built each month, and around 3,000 have been built so far. The service operates 24/7 across 8 time zones, and they are always monitored by a human who can take control at any time to help robots when they encounter something unexpected, or at busy road crossings. Currently, the robots cross 125,000 roads every day around the world (that’s around two per second).

The company has no plans to transport people. The focus is on goods delivery, while autonomy continues to improve each year. The team estimates improvements in autonomy performance at roughly 30 per cent annually as systems learn and improve.

The girls also visited their robot museum and saw how much the technology has evolved. Early prototypes looked very different from today’s robots. Some early experimental work by the founders placed second in a NASA-related robotics competition.

Around the office, there were hats from US universities where Starship robots operate on campuses. At one point, a girl said she would like to work with Starship robots in the future.

Another suggested that robots should be able to tell people when they are having a bad day. It sounded less like a joke and more like a surprisingly reasonable product feature.

After the visit, Unicorn Squad participant Lee said the most surprising thing for her was how widely robots are already used around the world. She was especially fascinated by stories of robots working in places such as alligator habitats in the United States.

Lee said she is interested in working with animals when she grows up, but is also curious about science and inventing new things. She talked about wanting to create materials that could help wounds heal and then safely dissolve once healing is complete, which she understands would likely mean studying biology and materials science. She is also interested in how environments are created for animals, for example, how zoos recreate polar bear habitat conditions and ensure animals have the right living conditions.

Another girl in the group, Linda Mari, came away with a different kind of inspiration. She said the visit made her want to become an engineer.

When asked what she likes about Unicorn Squad, Lee didn’t hesitate to share her opinion: it is interesting, it is fun, and they get to try things themselves. They get to build and invent. Sometimes they also get to see places most people never do, from technical spaces under the rotating stage at the Estonian Opera House to dressing rooms where wigs are made from real human hair.



Lee’s mother, and one of the Unicorn Squad girls’ mentors, Kata Varblane, shared how quickly the technology sector in Estonia is growing and the economic value it creates. Today, startups contribute roughly 5% of GDP, and there is an ambition to increase that significantly by 2030.

But her primary motivation was not economic. She wants girls to feel comfortable being part of this world. Unicorn Squad gives girls a safe space to experiment with tools and measuring, connecting wires, programming, solving problems and inventing.

Her daughter, Lee, used to attend a robotics club but stopped because she was the only girl there. The Unicorn Squad solved this problem and keeps girls engaged with technology while having fun with their friends.

Kata is usually very tired after sessions because the girls are energetic and need a lot of attention, but the enthusiasm and progress make it worth it.

The visit showed how technology is actually made, in real environments, with real limitations, by people solving problems step by step. For the girls, it made the robotics world feel closer and more real. Something they could be a part of in the future, and not something reserved for certain types of people, or something you need to be a genius to understand. Just work that someone has to do, decisions someone has to make, problems someone has to sit down and figure out.

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