Buying guide

REV-1 vs Starship Bot in 2026

Comparing 2 humanoid robots across availability, pricing, capabilities, and verified deployments. Current as of 2026.

Key differences

On DEPLOY's record, Starship Bot is further along: at the commercial stage versus REV-1 at the pilot stage, as of 2026.

Starship Bot has more capabilities independently verified as autonomous (1 vs 0).
Starship Bot has more verified real-world deployments (41 vs 1).
REV-1 is at the pilot stage; Starship Bot at the commercial stage.

Attribute	$Refraction AI introduces the REV-1$ REV-1 View full model page →	Starship Bot View full model page →
Manufacturer	Refraction AI	Starship Technologies
Form factor	sidewalk	sidewalk
Maturity	pilot	commercial
Autonomy	—	✓ 1 verified autonomous
Availability	internal-onlyenterprise	internal-onlyenterprise
Price	Not announced	$3,000-$7,000 (analyst estimate)
Capability claims	—	Delivers packages (autonomous, verified)
Brain	—	—
Verified deployments	1Refraction AI	41
Privacy practices	—	6bystander-recording, cloud-upload, data-retention, third-party-sharing, location-tracking, data-deletion-control
Sources on file	8	66

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REV-1

Starship Bot

Editorial summaries

REV-1

Refraction AI's REV-1 (Refraction AI, founded 2017 in Ann Arbor by University of Michigan professors) is a distinctive three-wheeled delivery vehicle sized between a sidewalk bot and a car: up to 15 mph with about a 280-pound payload, designed for winter and bicycle-courier-style operation, running primarily in the bike lane or road margin while able to use sidewalks where permitted, a regulatory regime between a sidewalk personal delivery device and a road autonomous vehicle. There is no consumer price: it runs a robots-as-a-service model where customers subscribe to dedicated, brand-customizable robots.

Several verified-vs-claimed points matter. A reported wind-down or acquisition is refuted: Refraction is verified still operating through 2024 to 2026 (new CEO Luke Schneider, an Austin office, Chick-fil-A as a marquee client, an active 2026 profile); the 'Osage Venture Partners exited' label is a venture-portfolio markdown, not a confirmed acquisition or shutdown, so it is not tagged discontinued.

It is recorded at pilot maturity: a roughly 21-person company with a named client and multi-city presence but no independently verified scale figures. Any lifetime delivery count, fleet size, revenue, or live-market count is unverified, and the claim that the REV-1 was discontinued in favor of a 'REF-1' is a likely misread of source language describing a second generation of the same design.

Starship Bot

Starship Technologies (founded 2014 by Skype co-founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis) makes the Starship Bot, a six-wheeled insulated-cargo autonomous sidewalk delivery robot and the captive-service archetype of the sidewalk-delivery cohort. It is operator-supervised Level 4: it runs autonomously on sidewalks with remote human oversight and takeover available, not driverless.

Starship operates its own fleet and integrates with delivery apps (Uber Eats, Just Eat, Bolt, Foodora, Grubhub, Wolt) plus grocers and retailers; it does not sell robots to third parties. Operational scale (April 2026, Starship-direct): more than 10 million cumulative autonomous deliveries, 3,000-plus robots, 300-plus service areas across 8 countries, 65-plus US university campuses, and 22 million-plus autonomous kilometers.

Funding ran through a Series C led by Plural with more than $280 million cumulative; the valuation is not disclosed, so DEPLOY cap-flags aggregator-quoted valuation figures. As a captive B2B delivery service, there is no consumer price.

Common questions

How do REV-1 and Starship Bot differ?

On DEPLOY's record, Starship Bot is further along: at the commercial stage versus REV-1 at the pilot stage, as of 2026. Starship Bot has more capabilities independently verified as autonomous (1 vs 0). Starship Bot has more verified real-world deployments (41 vs 1). REV-1 is at the pilot stage; Starship Bot at the commercial stage.

What is the difference between REV-1 and Starship Bot?

REV-1 and Starship Bot are both sidewalk robots on the DEPLOY registry. They differ in maker, maturity, price, verified deployments, and how much of their autonomy is independently verified. See the table above for the full head-to-head; each figure is sourced.

Is REV-1 or Starship Bot more autonomous?

Starship Bot has more capabilities independently verified as autonomous on the DEPLOY registry than REV-1. DEPLOY counts a capability as autonomous only when verified at a real deployment, not from a demo or a vendor claim.

Which has more verified deployments, REV-1 or Starship Bot?

Starship Bot has more verified deployments (41) on the DEPLOY registry than REV-1 (1). DEPLOY counts a deployment only when confirmed at a named site with a primary source.

Recent coverage

Starship Technologies: 10 million autonomous deliveries completedStarship Bot · Ben Smith, Deploy Editor · 2026-06-15
Autonomous Mobile Robots: The Future of LogisticsStarship Bot · Ben Smith, Deploy Editor · 2026-06-15
Refraction AI raises $4.2M for delivery robotsREV-1 · Ben Smith, Deploy Editor · 2020-01-01

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Delivery robot specs comparedAnswer The verified list.Where do delivery robots operate?Answer The verified list.All sidewalk deliveryRegistry Every verified record in the category.REV-1Model The full model page.Starship BotModel The full model page.Refraction AIRecord The maker's verified record.

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