The city of Concord, California is preparing to welcome Starship Technologies’ autonomous delivery robots to its sidewalks and streets, after the city’s leaders agreed to make Concord a testing ground for the technology.

This announcement comes after Starship Technologies approached the city of Concord last month and asked for permission to conduct a 12-month pilot program.

“Concord, as a city, is a great candidate for robot deliveries with the layout, pedestrian density and number of potential partners,” says Starship Technologies spokesman Henry Harris-Burland, via the East Bay Times.

Through the pilot program, up to 12 robots are expected to operate in a four-mile area in Concord.

The robots are not fully autonomous as of yet, so all of them will have a handler accompanying them to start off. A human operator will take control of the robot when it stops at driveways and crosswalks as programmed.

For Councilwoman Carlyn Obringer, having these robots in Concord will be exciting, especially after she got a chance to see them operate up close and personal in Washington D.C. last month.

“When I was back in Washington, D.C. back in June, I literally had one of these run right past me,” Obringer says.

“So, I was kind of excited when I came back to Concord to hear that you were planning to test here. I look forward to seeing how all this plays out.”

After placing an order and paying for it online, customers will be able to use a mobile app to set up delivery times, and also track the robots.

When the robot arrives at its destination, the company will send the customer a text with a link for them to click so that they can unlock the storage area on the robots and retrieve their items.

The robots have a number of safety precautions in place to prevent orders, or the robots themselves, from being stolen.

Should a robot be stolen, it is equipped with GPS, which police can use to track it down.

Thus far though, this hasn’t been an issue according to Starship Technologies’ representative David Catania, who says that the robots have traveled 40,000 miles and had seven million human interactions in 73 countries across the world without a single theft or issue of foul play.

Starship Technologies could land another city in California as a testing ground during the week of July 17, when the Walnut Creek city council considers whether or not the city should strike a similar deal to welcome the autonomous robots.

Walnut Creek could join Concord, Redwood City, San Carlos and Sunnyvale as other cities in the state where pilot projects for the autonomous robots are being conducted.