It happened again last Tuesday. I was waiting at a pedestrian crossing, and right next to me, waiting patiently for the light to change, was a small, six-wheeled white box. A delivery robot. It did not complain about the weather, it did not check its phone, it just waited for the green man and rolled on its way to deliver somebody’s dinner.

Here in the UK, especially if you have spent any time near Milton Keynes or Northampton, these little Starship delivery robots are becoming part of the furniture. But while we are busy getting used to autonomous grocery drops, a massive shift is happening across the Atlantic.