On 24 October Eurostar, the high-speed rail operator connecting the UK with mainland Europe, welcomed Pepper the robot to its London St Pancras team. In a first for the UK travel industry, the interactive humanoid robot offers customers, particularly families and children, a fun new way to find out about their journey before departure and entertains younger travellers.

Pepper, designed by SoftBank Robotics, is the first robot with the ability to recognise principal human emotions and adapt her own behaviour accordingly. Eurostar has recruited Pepper to entertain and help customers, and in partnership with Robots of London she can respond to questions or even pose for a selfie on request.

Located in the departure lounge at London St. Pancras, Pepper will interact with passengers using an inbuilt tablet, where travellers will find an interactive station map, information about the on board experience, as well as a wealth of destination tips for Paris, Brussels, Lille and Amsterdam.

Perrine Allain, Head of Digital at Eurostar, said:
“We are always looking for new ways to innovate, and explore technologies that can help enhance the overall customer experience. Pepper offers a fun way for customers to find out more about their journey and destination, and we look forward to hearing the feedback from our customers so that we can continue to improve their experience.”

The addition of Pepper is one of a range of technological innovations that Eurostar has committed to in order to enhance the customer experience. Later this month, the business is launching Alexa skill, with passengers able to link Alexa to their Eurostar account to track their travel plans and find out the lowest available fare to Paris.

Pepper will be located at St. Pancras International for the rest of this year, with plans to re-locate to one of the high-speed rail operators other locations in 2019. For more information visit www.eurostar.com

(Source: Eurostar)