FedEx Corp. is grabbing the baton from other delivery services with plans to try out autonomous robots that bring packages to the doorstep.

The company said in a press release today that its “SameDay Bot” is “designed to help retailers make same-day and last-mile deliveries to their customers.” Since many customers live within a few miles of the merchants that they order from, FedEx said, there’s a need for what its calls “hyper delivery.”

A few companies are already collaborating with the company, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Walgreen Co., Target Corp. and Pizza Hut. The battery-powered bot will have a top speed of 10 miles per hour, will carry up to 100 pounds and will be fitted with cameras and the same LIDAR sensors used in self-driving cars. It will be able to get around pedestrians and mount curbs.

“The FedEx SameDay Bot is an innovation designed to change the face of local delivery and help retailers efficiently address their customers’ rising expectations,” said Brie Carere, FedEx’s chief marketing and communications officer. “The bot represents a milestone in our ongoing mission to solve the complexities and expense of same-day, last-mile delivery for the growing e-commerce market in a manner that is safe and environmentally friendly.”

The technology used is modeled on the iBot, a mobility device used by the disabled that has put in millions of hours of real-world operation. Machine learning algorithms will help the SameDay bot to understand where obstacles are and create the ideal path to the doorstep. And yes, FedEx said it can get up the steps to the door.

For awhile now, startups have been deploying such bots in cities around the U.S. and beyond, such as Starship Technologies, which started testing pedestrian bots in 2017. In January,Amazon.com Inc. released its own kind of last-mile delivery bot in the Amazon Scout.

Still, in some places the bots might not be welcome. In 2017, officials in San Francisco banned such sidewalk-moving bots from most parts of the city.

FedEx’s bot will initially be tested close to the company’s headquarters in Memphis and other selected office locations. If the trials are successful, the company will have to wait for official approval before the bots can rev their engines.

Image: FedEx