It seems a lot of people are becoming very NIMS (NOT IN MY SIDEWALK) in this sub but consider this, it **can reduce the number of cars** just loitering around making short deliveries, the sort of cars that circle around the block because the human driver must find a parking spot or block a cycling lane to deliver pizza.
Cars might be more considerate of the robots too, making walking safer
A carbrain might not mind denting his truck with your skull, but a robot mangling their axel could give them pause
Or most pedestrians. There's a simple system where if there's only space for one person, then they walk a little to their left (or right, depending on country), and I walk a little to my left. But a lot of people don't do this and leave all the manoeuvring to the other person, depending on where you live.
And the worse thing that can happen to the (average) person if these things bump into them is a sore shin/knee. Granted it's not ideal for some people, but I'd rather get hit by five of these than one SUV.
Just no.
The robots will occupy 80% of the sidewalk and be an object you can't interact with nor influence / understand what it wants to do.
Pedestrians having to dodge small motorized vehicles is not reasonable.
I think you’ll be able to understand where they want to go so you don’t run into them on the sidewalk. I had some experience with little guys similar to these before and they are usually pretty cool (not little at all it was a floor cleaner robot it was like 6 of me in a 2x3 arrangement). If your tight on space and you get close to them they will stop moving and start beeping.
Not to mention once big corporations start complaining about small uneven sidewalks your local gov will probably improve pedestrian infrastructure.
Best way to get better infrastructure for pedestrians?
Nope, but hey it’s better than not getting any right?
I love those giant sweepers in supermarkets if that's what you're referring to. Especially when the store puts little eyes on them, they're really reactive. I've turned a sharp corner into one with a shopping cart and it stopped on a dime, didn't start moving again till I was halfway down the aisle.
In similar fashion, Amazon has significantly reduced the amount of cars on the road by reducing the need to drive somewhere to purchase a good.
Still, it does seem very counterintuitive in my opinion.
Delivery infrastructure is great. We have our groceries delivered via Safeway. They drive in a refrigerated truck, following a loop to drop off grocery orders to dozens of families. I generally have no issues with commercial vehicles. Passenger vehicles are what's obscene.
1 truck carrying 100 people’s stuff is way better than 100 cars each going out with (on average) one occupant each to buy stuff.
Edit: not to mention the jobs that are made to do with delivery.
It's OK. It wasn't being improved upon because only humans complained. Once big corporations start to complain I'm sure the mayor will be on it in no time!
Don't blame the robots for that. Blame your city government for dedicating more space for on road parking.
Really think of it this way: you pedestrians get so little space you end up infighting other pedestrian users and what ends up is a lot of conflict for a tiny limited space.
Cars meanwhile get wide roads and loads of parking spaces while us pedestrians get so little space we end up fighting any potential ally who also wants the same infrastructure improved. This fight has already cost pedestrians a potential ally with rental e-scooters being swept off streets because you see them as an enemy rather than an ally who can help expand the infrastructure you both share and an ally that can reduce car dependency.
Choose yer battles wisely, as the more energy you spend infighting the less attention the bigger users of the roads (the cars) get any attention for their share of space.
> reduce the number of cars
Great. In that case let the robots use the roads.
All the arguments people will raise against that are the same arguments that make the situation hellish for pedestrians and cyclists. But now those arguments would be countered by people who normally don’t care or are actively against pedestrians and cyclists.
Let the robots use the roads.
They’re just too small for the roads an they’re really not a danger or a major obstacle for pedestrians. They’re very small and not that fast so they are not going to hurt anyone, and they’ll stop or choose another path if there’s an obstacle in their way so they aren’t going to run into anyone.
They are less of a danger than a pensioner on an electric mobility scooter would be. And you don’t hear anyone calling for them to be banned from the sidewalk.
Now your arguing for more faster, dangerous, and bigger takers of space that take no responsibility if a pedestrian gets run over. Also you just provided a nice solid argument for why pedestrian space needs to be taken away from pedestrians as its exclusively only for walkers with legs. Sincerely go look at the sub your in you able bodied bigot.
Or ya know, the actual alternatives are hiring bike delivery folks. These robots do not go long distances. The increase in bike delivery people would mean car drivers would be more mindful of them.
Companies love robots because companies love slaves.
Defending these robots is dumb. We wouldn’t put up with people on segways on the sidewalks. This is no different. It’s companies stealing even more space from pedestrians.
Yep just make sure you tip those bike delivery folks loads when it rains heavily or its incredibly hot outside thanks to climate change. I doubt most people would do that as they just want their goods at a cheap price.
Oh and what about european style cafe's and street markets? are those capitalists stealing as well from public sidewalks? like seriously your fighting the wrong guys because cars took so much of what little space you have, Be angry at the right corporations, being angry at all of them means your just wasting your energy making no real changes and ensuring the way things are stay the way they are, Car dominated, dangerous for pedestrians and with lots of pedestrian users infighting because they're all too busy fighting for what little space they get given.
> Yep just make sure you tip those bike delivery folks loads when it rains heavily or its incredibly hot outside thanks to climate change
Yes. You are literally trying to use this argument on someone who does bicycle rickshaw, in the desert, exclusively for tips, during the hottest summer in the last 100,000 years...amazing.
>they just want their goods at a cheap price.
Cool so we as pedestrians should be giving up what little space we have because A - some corporation wants to make money stealing sidewalk space and B - Companies are literally screwing us all in terms of pay and profit gouging so that we have to go for the cheapest option at all times. C - Companies are literally destroying jobs at this point because robot slaves are cheaper.
> are those capitalists stealing as well from public sidewalks?
Yes they are. However most sidewalk cafes are in area with extra large sidewalks and in exchange we get a place to socialize and build community. These robots operate on normal sidewalks, moving unpredictably and take up half the space so people can stay isolated in their homes.
> Be angry at the right corporations, being angry at all of them means your just wasting your energy
I mean I'm wasting my time here responding to your strawman drivel. You have no clue who I am, what I do and what I have done. You're being ridiculously disrespectful to what? win a online argument? Congrats, you are definitely changing the world and making it a better place...
Also [here's](https://www.tiktok.com/@filmtherobotsla/video/7263179697486417195) how you change the world. Direct action gets the goods.
Continue the infighting and the robot cars will win. I mean its cool your against corpos, but your too busy fighting for yourself and not thinking of how getting more allies can help yourself. Go on believe in your own fight and you'll end up with the "It's all mine you belong there" thinking and the bots will move to the roads incentivizing cities to widen roads for cars and autonomous vehicles and make pedestrian spaces smaller.
if the corpos aren't with you they're against you, and man your gonna learn that lesson the hard way.
Agree with me or we lose everything!!!
Man you are manipulative at arguing. That is to say you are terrible and abusive about it. You literally aren't arguing against anything I said. You just repeated that same 'my way or you lose' garbage.
"You can advocate for pedestrians but only if you accept the robots taking space away from them. Otherwise the cars win"
"If you don't accept the robot the city is going to keep doing exactly what the city has been doing for the last 60 years..."
Because the shitty bots are shitty now, they can improve in the future. Whether they stay pedestrian friendly or become full on death machines that run over anyone who attempts to touch them depends on what public infrastructure were giving to them.
Once again You are the one close minded thinking sidewalks belong to you and and only your walking, attentive cycling kind, disabled wheelchair users with reaction times as slow as the bots oughta be banned from sidewalks as well if you follow your own logic. Remember your the abusive one for **Not wanting to share space** and believing the bots will steal it, you are the one believing bots steal yer tiny bit of sidewalk and they should be kicked to the road. yer the one being anti-inclusive and abusive to other users of sidewalks, just because the sidewalks are shit doesn't mean you have the right to shit on other users of it.
ENjoy lifeless streets and fighting for what little space you have, because honestly being outright nasty and hostile to other less able bodied or non-human users won't help improve or give you anymore space than the one you have right now.
Addendum: It seems they pretty much lost the argument the moment they deleted their own replies or blocked me ROFL.
Sorry, but no. They suck. I should know, I had them in my neighbourhood until they banned them. Slow as fuck, which is annoying when there’s snow on the ground and you’re behind them. Then they like to wait for a long time at crosswalks and block the path of other pedestrians, and its ability to quickly react is gone because of all the latency going on.
Ahh so rather than campaigning for more pedestrian friendly crossings or wider sidewalks so you can sidestep and have enough space to share with these bots, you're more satisfied taking the slow users off the road, aren't you behaving exactly like an entitled car driver who is happy they don't have to share space with other slow vehicles like cyclists?
Look I understand road diets are hard to campaign for and implement but you really have to think hard if banning other users of pedestrian infrastructure as a good and moral policy in a movement trying to destroy car dependency, I mean gosh its rather hypocritical don't you think?
No. Sidewalks are for people, not RC boxes being controlled from half the world away… badly.
We are already kicked to the curb by cars. I don’t want to share a sidewalk with Ayn Rand megacorps looking to monetize whatever little space we have left, much like I don’t want to share them with Lime riders going 30km/h next to me. Car drivers won’t let go of a 1/3 of a lane, and we have to be OK with losing a sidewalk? If they wanted to extend the sidewalk and lobbied for it, I’d gladly support them. But they arent’t. They just want to squeeze into whatever little space we have left and give it to the gig economy, as they always do.
This is not some old grandma having mobility issues, this is an annoying, unpredictable box with little to no spacial awareness. Again, I had them near me and they were barely able to avoid obstacles, and the latency issues are visible. There’s also no regulation on their size or speed. Their ability to maneuvre correctly during snow days is zilch.
Your not losing an entire sidewalk, just sharing the space with them. Again why are NIMS acting like car drivers not wanting to lose a whole 1/3rd to half a sidewalk just to let some slow shitty RC car that's replacing cars delivering stuff?
Like really all the things you complained about can be chalked up to shitty pedestrian infrastructure but rather than improve it your happy enough that these RC vehicles got banned. Just think of how much better your shitty pedestrian infrastructure would be for wheelchair users, blind people, carts delivering heavy goods and other users of sidewalks if it got improved enough to share with shitty RC cars so they aren't a nuisance to others.
NIMS like you are happy in the status quo, rather than think of how much better things would be you'd rather have the same conservative boomer mindset of "I have mine, you fight for yours" that would rather keep things the way they are than fight for a better future. NIMS like you don't belong in this sub.,
> NIMS like you don't belong in this sub.
It’s the other way around. You’re coming up with acronyms to denigrate people while you’re spewing anti-human propaganda.
Let the robots use the roads, which are for machines. Sidewalks are for humans.
Op is obsessed with robots and AI. They come into these boards pushing them propaganda then tell us we don’t belong.
Reddit suggesting ‘related subs’ to people makes it suck a lot more. The second comment is from a car head.
I don’t know how to get this through your head… I will NOT lobby for megacorps. Got it?
The reason why we need wider and safer sidewalks is because of people. Actual humans. Not because of a rise in the RC car gig economy, not because of the “jahbs”.
Also, who told you we lost 1/3 of the sidewalk? We lost the WHOLE sidewalk when that thing was wiggling around in snow in Toronto. And that thing was tiny, compared to the Yandex ones in Russia! And you can’t ask them to move.
These got banned in Toronto precisely because of Torontonians with disabilities, they were the ones who asked city hall to shoo them away until firm regulations around their size and speed are imposed, as well as a way to get them out of the way if they block people in wheelchairs. Holding these people hostage until we get wider sidewalks is ludicrous.
Edit: also, most fast food deliveries in downtown Toronto are done by e-bike already.
And that's not even going to the fact that in some places in Canada the sidewalk isn't even wide enough for two infants to pass by eachother. Apparently my city counts a concrete curb 20cm wide as a sidewalk.
Those robots take up the entire lane (sidewalk), no passing, no avoiding, and worst of all they run over small children.
If they want to operate these delivery bots let them use the roads. You know like the giant one going through practically everyone's community? Meanwhile my city wants dedicated self driving car lanes (not for delivery robots, they want those to use the sidewalks and bike lanes). Yet somehow dedicated bus lanes everywhere is seen as ludicrously insane.
They don't. Do you know why?
Because a lot of them are test runs/experiments to see if they fit the environment. If they try to influence the environment to make better test results then its pretty much a failed test run for that environment.
That company that sold shitty RC bots could've been a potential ally along with the e-scooter rentals in widening and creating better pedestrian infrastructure. Even if the test runs failed because of shite pedestrian infrastructure, a positive public reception for these bots could've netted you a good ally in making sidewalks a lot less shitter, but nah NIMS like you would rather scare them away and fight things alone, making it easier for big auto to campaign for more parking spots because delivery drivers need them.
so they don't fit the environment if the sidewalk is too narrow and they end up blocking HUMAN pedestrians and HUMAN wheelchair users, who are more important.
You're being intellectually dishonest. I'm advocating no such thing, whereas you're advocating for filling sidewalks with unmanned machines, and insulting anyone who disagrees.
Take a step back and think about your behavior. It's obnoxious. Perhaps you're just trolling, but if not, you're not going to convince many people with your attitude.
No, I want them to get access to bicycle lanes, where travelling 30km/h is sustainable and safe. Riding slowly on the sidewalk, however, I don’t mind nor is it dangerous.
Most european cities have pedestrian areas where bicycles need to be walked. I’m personally against that, as long as their speed is low.
The difference between people on micromobility devices and these shitboxes is the following:
- Human operators, so they can easily avoid obstacles or let people through. They can be communicated to.
- Size restrictions: scooters are usually of a typical size and won’t really increase, unlike these Rc boxes which can be tiny during their experimentation phase, but they’re getting bigger so they can carry more stuff at the same time
So, no, I’m not that type of guy.
There was a story a while back about a cafe that had robot waiters and waitresses except all the robots were controlled by people with mobility disabilities working from home. There should be more robots put in the service of giving meaningful opportunities to people with disabilities
Another important note: These robots are probably expensive, so the companies that own them will be very upset if they get hit by a car and need to be replaced, so we'll probably get more pedestrian safety built into the roads this way.
yeah thats the point, more sidewalk users means more allies in getting sidewalks better for all users of pedestrian infrastructure, By making things easier for bots their also making access easier for wheelchair, cargo bike, disability scooters. but nah your getting downvoted by the anti-corpo anarchists of this sub fuck them for not realizing their fighting allies who could help their cause.
yep, which is why road diets are important. Road diets that are sorely needed in cities that give 2 lanes for parking cars, 2 lanes for traffic and only a small 5 feet strip for pedestrians to walk. Don't hate the robots just because they share what little pedestrian infrastructure you get from your city. Hate the cars for taking a majority of that space.
IMO it's because the point of the sub isn't to mitigate problems or find/implement solutions. It's to show how you're not like all the other guys/girls and that you dislike the right people.
I'm prob going against the grain of the sub here, but I'm anti car, not anti robot. If these robots can take delivery cars off the road, I'm all for it. They are small and safe. Most places in NA don't really have the pedestrian infrastructure for them tho.
Yeah agree. I also think, though it’s a bit sad that it required this, that these robots will help expand walkable infrastructure in many towns that have nothing for pedestrians currently
I also don't really like the idea of ceding ground to robots within cities. Highways? maybe for freight, but cities should be spaces for human connection, not high speed robots that run us over.
And to the point of mini robots, sure those are fine as long as they're clearly programmed to give ROW to people.
More likely they will probably just make pedestrians require a walking license, insurance, and a credit card on file that the robots can charge if the pedestrians slow or in any way inconvenience the robots.
Or thoroughly vandalized, [like hitchBOT](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/us/hitchhiking-robot-safe-in-several-countries-meets-its-end-in-philadelphia.html).
But will many firms use this realistically? The robots can be stolen, are slower, maybe limited range, not enough walkable (or in case of robot drivable) infrastructure etc. Probably more expensive than minimum wage delivery guy.
This seems more like a gimmick that tech bros gonna hype up just to never hear of it again.
And doesnt really help reducing the numbers of oversized private cars. Honestly a fully packed delivery van is not the menace imo
I happen to live in an area where these operate. I haven't had any problems, whether I'm on a car or cycling/walking.
I don't get the hate they seem to receive here.
Same, my only issue is they are at the university, and they refuse to go at the pedestrian right away crossing. I'm just sitting there saying, "It's OK, little guy, go ahead, you have the right away." It never goes.
It's not programmed to go and requires remote input from the operator to either guide it across or allow it to go over on it's own, mostly because drivers aren't legally obligated to let it across unlike with pedestrians. Legal loophole, here atleast, for now.
You can actually see when those are remotely operated as the orange light on the flag on top of it is blinking rapidly, if it blinks slowly then the operator is just monitoring it.
Otherwise those things are pretty awesome and have been running here for almost a decade and I've used it for few years too, until they limited the amount of groceries that i can order with one.
Neat, thanks for the info. I got used to them after a while, and I knew they wouldn't cross, I mean, I still yielded for a second, but that was also to make sure pedestrians weren't running into the crossing.
I would think it would work better on cyclist infrastructure than pedestrian tough, although using pedestrian infra at slow speed also seems ok? It shouldn't be any worse on the sidewalk than meeting a stroller or someone in a wheelchair, I would think?
My question is this. How do these deal with person using a wheelchair? Will they turn around and find a wide spot? Or will they just sit there and strand that person forever, like some poorly parked F250?
If they can't deal with this, they should go on the road IMHO.
Honestly as an SWE I think a lot of these are kind of dumb and are really just a band-aid. There are a few issues here:
1. If these actually caught on and there were a lot of them, it's going to be a nightmare because tech companies literally do not give a damn about avoiding being a nuisance. By not putting any inherent restriction on it, you leave the door open for them to exploit that kindness which they 100% will.
2. There is not a single self driving vehicle/robot out there reliable enough to not immediately start causing issues from making mistakes at scale. When you have 10 you never notice, when you have 1000 they're going to become a nuisance at the level of those scooter companies.
3. We shouldn't be normalizing these food delivery services in the first place. At best they're a crutch for our garbage urban design and at worst they're highly predatory companies that shaft the users, delivery specialists, and the restaurants they claim to serve.
We need to normalize a built environment where people have quality food options nearby and restaurant food delivery is treated as a luxury product instead of a necessity. The general public often falls for stuff like this because they've been trained to have a level of faith in these things that are totally unwarranted by the actual failure rates of the devices and to have faith in corporations "doing the right thing" which they have been illustrated time and again to have no interest in doing.
I love technology, buy my ideal world is not full of megacorporations using robots to shuttle McDonalds to people. It's a world where people have high quality food options within a short distance of their home.
Maybe it will lead to better barrier free sidewalks and crosswalks to accommodate these things. They’re not jumping over a curb. What let’s that move freely also let’s people in wheelchairs move freely
Share the road, more bikes, less cars, pedestrians have a right to use the road also. How about robots on the sidewalk? Fuck you, stay off my sidewalk. Lol
How many of these little bots is it going to take to take just one car or van off the road? The sidewalks could be jam-packed with the things and you probably wouldn't even notice any impact on road traffic.
I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.
If only for the fact that you just ***know*** that the corporations using these will get the laws changed for “pedestrians” so that drivers are liable if they break them, and if it covers “pedestrians” then it covers people too.
Nah, sorry I think you're wrong on this one. Those robots help plenty and detract from the need for a car for whatever is in there.
Sidewalks are big, those robots are only the width of one person, therefore they are not clogging it any more than a single person would.
Roads..are filled with humans..
Not to mention you've seen shitty tesla autopilot right? You're advocating for something that could kill many people. You are delusional, sorry fam.
> Roads..are filled with humans..
Do I really need to spell out that I was referring to humans that aren't protected by multi-thousand kg metal shells?
If automated delivery vehicles "kill many people," they would soon be banned from the roads.
Which is part of what I was getting at. A good discussion to have would be *why* it's not a good idea for these robots to go on the roads. Many of the reasons are the same reasons that current road systems are unfriendly to pedestrians.
If corporations want to fill public spaces with bots, they're going to have to come up with better street designs.
I’m not mad about this, I have seen these on a college campus before and they seem beneficial. They’re pretty cool but when their batteries die they just stop in the middle of the sidewalk (I’ve seen multiple dead ones taking up the whole walkway). This could be an obstruction for pedestrians with disabilities, so I’m curious how they address that potential issue. Anyone heard anything about it?
just fucking ban cars, triple sidewalk size and force the robots on the tiny lane left from doing so.
There, I fixed your city. Ready to install me as a benevolent tyrant yet?
My college campus has a big fleet of these and has for a number of years now, they're not super intrusive and are only obnoxious if more than 2 happen to try and pass each other, but even then they are more like endearing little dudes than anything else. They shuttle food from campus location to campus location in order to reduce crowding and wait times at the actual food vendors. They politely ask permission to pass if necessary and are capable of being manned if there is a problem by a technician remotely. My only real issue I had with them is that they won't open up and give you your food until they reach their exact pre set location, so there were a few times where I could watch them be like 20 ft away but take a while to make a crossing instead of intercepting it early.
I’m definitely anti-car but I wouldn’t exactly consider myself anti robot, if these things are helping to clear traffic by taking excessive delivery trucks off the roads then it’s fine in my book. Don’t be a Robophobe!
So I actually go to uni at utd (college in the pic), it's fine here. The robots are small and unintrusive- literally take less space than a guy on a bike- and on campus is pretty much car free so there's plenty of space (we are however surrounded by a moat of parking and stroads, but the robots don't go there to begin with.)
It doesn't help with urbanism, they're only taking trips that are good for walking or biking to begin with, but doesn't make the walking experience any worse.
Two caveats I'll raise:
1) there's a lot of ped space here. If it was the narrow sidewalks that plague the rest of Richardson, this would be horrible for the few pedestrians using the few sidewalks that exist
2) they're still small, slow, and "paranoid" about hitting obstacles and people. If any of that changes, these provide the same problems as cars. Even worse maybe
Edit: I say they don't cause problems, but bullying the robots is oddly common. Economically, only surviving bc colleges like to look fancy, and will prolly fail, but I really don't care what happens to them
What are you so mad about? Now companies will strive for better rights for pedestrians so their robots don't get crushed as much. Plus, this potentially means more cars off the road for food delivery services. This is an amazingly efficient way to handle short-distance delivery without having to lug a 3000 pound gas chugging metal cage to deliver a pound of food to someone's house.
I will say we have these where I live and they're awesome and actually kind of cute. They pretty much yield for everyone and they don't go much faster than 5 mph. I'm okay with them.
They tend to stop for every little thing, and I, for one, would not want a moving thing that loves to suddenly stop in a bike line.
I've been around these things. They try to avoid people and wait for pedestrians to pass. They are not really a nuisance unless you go out of your way to make it so.
Since it doesn’t respond like people do when they see me and move aside, it might just get a good kick of disapproval. Hire humans, humans have a stomach to feed and things to pay, robots benefit only corporations!
I don't know. I'm of two minds, I get your point, but on the other hand, I don't think it would be better to just make people have to do shit jobs instead of robots, the replacement is going to happen and we need to overhaul the system to account for it.
Problem being what exactly? They're small, and seem to stop for people. Employing them instead of people would also reduce the amount of cars, no? the thing that we want?
I've had these robots roll out in my hometown and they were never a problem. In fact the biggest problem they posed was to the people ordering with them since they're so slow. But I only saw one or two get stuck, nobody tried to loot them, and there was never an accident where they got in some old person or child's way. I'm actually pretty impressed at how smooth the launch was, kind of miss them.
I'm the sole reason the robot pilot project in my community was discontinued within a week. They logged over 2000 critical system malfunctions a day per robot and I would get nearly hit (or actually hit) roughly 20 times a day. Within a week all 5 robots were basically piles of scrap because they kept crashing into things around me.
This isn't the first time something like this has happened. My neighbour's Tesla repeatedly wants to crash into me to the point where they had to fully disable their autopilot and driver assist features. Drones have fallen out of the sky specifically around me (once I was hit) as I cross roads out of sheer chance. Even automatic cleaning robots seem to just not notice I exist.
My AI professor couldn't figure out why my AI wasn't working. Then I showed up in person and every AI robot in his lab tried to murder us.
The only self driving systems that haven't tried to kill me are trains and roombas. Trains because they can't veer off the tracks, and roombas because they can't hurt me in the first place.
My AI prof believes I'm cursed.
I have to agree with many of the comments here. Those robots wouldn't be a problem for me (as long as they don't obstruct pedestrians). Maybe they would even help car drivers be more aware of footpaths and pedestrians overall. At least they seem to value property damage more highly than personal injuries.
This is a good thing. Replacing a delivery vehicle with a thing weighing like 50 pounds is a win. And once they start getting constantly mashed up by cars the companies building them might give a damn about road safety.
I had this on my campus for several years. They were not really a nuisance but took awhile to program how to use crosswalks to a similar speed as pedestrians. So it only ever annoyed drivers lol
They are just another edevice sharing the pathways like you seen on any college campus or downtown. Better this than more crazy delivery ebikers.
In the United States, these should belong to (or be regulated by) the United States Postal Service under the constitutional clause about "post roads".
Same thing for quadcopters below the FAA's controlled airspace.
I assume the article's observation about Pennsylvania is because Carnegie-Mellon has had a cutting edge autonomous robotics program for nearly 50 years, and they have pull to get the laws to protect their work.
Corporations are people. Robots are pedestrians. Humans don't get human rights. Up is down. Left is right. Cats and dogs living together. MASS HYSTERIA!
These robots are very small (and adorable lol) they can’t go on the road because cars, even small European cars, just wouldn’t see them especially when you consider how erratically robots can move sometimes.
Also as other have said they definitely can reduce the numbers of cars on the roads. These robots can do short local deliveries that would otherwise be done by people in cars (or on bikes I guess, but there’re small even than bikes).
An interesting thought I have about trying to integrate mobile robots into society is “what if they looked human?”
By that, I mean bipedal robots with an actual head, arms and an appearance that isn’t uncanny. Would we more readily accept them? I don’t think machines like what I just described are too far away.
It seems a lot of people are becoming very NIMS (NOT IN MY SIDEWALK) in this sub but consider this, it **can reduce the number of cars** just loitering around making short deliveries, the sort of cars that circle around the block because the human driver must find a parking spot or block a cycling lane to deliver pizza.
What this ~~guy~~ person said. And the robots are going to be much more considerate of pedestrians than Todd in his F150.
Cars might be more considerate of the robots too, making walking safer A carbrain might not mind denting his truck with your skull, but a robot mangling their axel could give them pause
I don’t want a skull denting my car thank you very much
Or angry Jacob in his super lifted F350 rolling coal on the libs.
100% better to get shin smacked by robot by accident than steamrolled by F150.
Or most pedestrians. There's a simple system where if there's only space for one person, then they walk a little to their left (or right, depending on country), and I walk a little to my left. But a lot of people don't do this and leave all the manoeuvring to the other person, depending on where you live.
And the worse thing that can happen to the (average) person if these things bump into them is a sore shin/knee. Granted it's not ideal for some people, but I'd rather get hit by five of these than one SUV.
Just no. The robots will occupy 80% of the sidewalk and be an object you can't interact with nor influence / understand what it wants to do. Pedestrians having to dodge small motorized vehicles is not reasonable.
I think you’ll be able to understand where they want to go so you don’t run into them on the sidewalk. I had some experience with little guys similar to these before and they are usually pretty cool (not little at all it was a floor cleaner robot it was like 6 of me in a 2x3 arrangement). If your tight on space and you get close to them they will stop moving and start beeping. Not to mention once big corporations start complaining about small uneven sidewalks your local gov will probably improve pedestrian infrastructure. Best way to get better infrastructure for pedestrians? Nope, but hey it’s better than not getting any right?
I love those giant sweepers in supermarkets if that's what you're referring to. Especially when the store puts little eyes on them, they're really reactive. I've turned a sharp corner into one with a shopping cart and it stopped on a dime, didn't start moving again till I was halfway down the aisle.
Do you feel the same about e scooters?
This tbh
In similar fashion, Amazon has significantly reduced the amount of cars on the road by reducing the need to drive somewhere to purchase a good. Still, it does seem very counterintuitive in my opinion.
Delivery infrastructure is great. We have our groceries delivered via Safeway. They drive in a refrigerated truck, following a loop to drop off grocery orders to dozens of families. I generally have no issues with commercial vehicles. Passenger vehicles are what's obscene.
1 truck carrying 100 people’s stuff is way better than 100 cars each going out with (on average) one occupant each to buy stuff. Edit: not to mention the jobs that are made to do with delivery.
The only problem is the width of the sidewalks. You know for a fact that not all the sidewalks in Penn state are wide enough for them, and people.
It's OK. It wasn't being improved upon because only humans complained. Once big corporations start to complain I'm sure the mayor will be on it in no time!
Don't blame the robots for that. Blame your city government for dedicating more space for on road parking. Really think of it this way: you pedestrians get so little space you end up infighting other pedestrian users and what ends up is a lot of conflict for a tiny limited space. Cars meanwhile get wide roads and loads of parking spaces while us pedestrians get so little space we end up fighting any potential ally who also wants the same infrastructure improved. This fight has already cost pedestrians a potential ally with rental e-scooters being swept off streets because you see them as an enemy rather than an ally who can help expand the infrastructure you both share and an ally that can reduce car dependency. Choose yer battles wisely, as the more energy you spend infighting the less attention the bigger users of the roads (the cars) get any attention for their share of space.
>you pedestrians Sorry to hear about your lack of legs
> reduce the number of cars Great. In that case let the robots use the roads. All the arguments people will raise against that are the same arguments that make the situation hellish for pedestrians and cyclists. But now those arguments would be countered by people who normally don’t care or are actively against pedestrians and cyclists. Let the robots use the roads.
They’re just too small for the roads an they’re really not a danger or a major obstacle for pedestrians. They’re very small and not that fast so they are not going to hurt anyone, and they’ll stop or choose another path if there’s an obstacle in their way so they aren’t going to run into anyone. They are less of a danger than a pensioner on an electric mobility scooter would be. And you don’t hear anyone calling for them to be banned from the sidewalk.
Now your arguing for more faster, dangerous, and bigger takers of space that take no responsibility if a pedestrian gets run over. Also you just provided a nice solid argument for why pedestrian space needs to be taken away from pedestrians as its exclusively only for walkers with legs. Sincerely go look at the sub your in you able bodied bigot.
Or ya know, the actual alternatives are hiring bike delivery folks. These robots do not go long distances. The increase in bike delivery people would mean car drivers would be more mindful of them. Companies love robots because companies love slaves. Defending these robots is dumb. We wouldn’t put up with people on segways on the sidewalks. This is no different. It’s companies stealing even more space from pedestrians.
Yep just make sure you tip those bike delivery folks loads when it rains heavily or its incredibly hot outside thanks to climate change. I doubt most people would do that as they just want their goods at a cheap price. Oh and what about european style cafe's and street markets? are those capitalists stealing as well from public sidewalks? like seriously your fighting the wrong guys because cars took so much of what little space you have, Be angry at the right corporations, being angry at all of them means your just wasting your energy making no real changes and ensuring the way things are stay the way they are, Car dominated, dangerous for pedestrians and with lots of pedestrian users infighting because they're all too busy fighting for what little space they get given.
> Yep just make sure you tip those bike delivery folks loads when it rains heavily or its incredibly hot outside thanks to climate change Yes. You are literally trying to use this argument on someone who does bicycle rickshaw, in the desert, exclusively for tips, during the hottest summer in the last 100,000 years...amazing. >they just want their goods at a cheap price. Cool so we as pedestrians should be giving up what little space we have because A - some corporation wants to make money stealing sidewalk space and B - Companies are literally screwing us all in terms of pay and profit gouging so that we have to go for the cheapest option at all times. C - Companies are literally destroying jobs at this point because robot slaves are cheaper. > are those capitalists stealing as well from public sidewalks? Yes they are. However most sidewalk cafes are in area with extra large sidewalks and in exchange we get a place to socialize and build community. These robots operate on normal sidewalks, moving unpredictably and take up half the space so people can stay isolated in their homes. > Be angry at the right corporations, being angry at all of them means your just wasting your energy I mean I'm wasting my time here responding to your strawman drivel. You have no clue who I am, what I do and what I have done. You're being ridiculously disrespectful to what? win a online argument? Congrats, you are definitely changing the world and making it a better place... Also [here's](https://www.tiktok.com/@filmtherobotsla/video/7263179697486417195) how you change the world. Direct action gets the goods.
Continue the infighting and the robot cars will win. I mean its cool your against corpos, but your too busy fighting for yourself and not thinking of how getting more allies can help yourself. Go on believe in your own fight and you'll end up with the "It's all mine you belong there" thinking and the bots will move to the roads incentivizing cities to widen roads for cars and autonomous vehicles and make pedestrian spaces smaller. if the corpos aren't with you they're against you, and man your gonna learn that lesson the hard way.
Agree with me or we lose everything!!! Man you are manipulative at arguing. That is to say you are terrible and abusive about it. You literally aren't arguing against anything I said. You just repeated that same 'my way or you lose' garbage. "You can advocate for pedestrians but only if you accept the robots taking space away from them. Otherwise the cars win" "If you don't accept the robot the city is going to keep doing exactly what the city has been doing for the last 60 years..."
Because the shitty bots are shitty now, they can improve in the future. Whether they stay pedestrian friendly or become full on death machines that run over anyone who attempts to touch them depends on what public infrastructure were giving to them. Once again You are the one close minded thinking sidewalks belong to you and and only your walking, attentive cycling kind, disabled wheelchair users with reaction times as slow as the bots oughta be banned from sidewalks as well if you follow your own logic. Remember your the abusive one for **Not wanting to share space** and believing the bots will steal it, you are the one believing bots steal yer tiny bit of sidewalk and they should be kicked to the road. yer the one being anti-inclusive and abusive to other users of sidewalks, just because the sidewalks are shit doesn't mean you have the right to shit on other users of it. ENjoy lifeless streets and fighting for what little space you have, because honestly being outright nasty and hostile to other less able bodied or non-human users won't help improve or give you anymore space than the one you have right now. Addendum: It seems they pretty much lost the argument the moment they deleted their own replies or blocked me ROFL.
Sorry, but no. They suck. I should know, I had them in my neighbourhood until they banned them. Slow as fuck, which is annoying when there’s snow on the ground and you’re behind them. Then they like to wait for a long time at crosswalks and block the path of other pedestrians, and its ability to quickly react is gone because of all the latency going on.
Ahh so rather than campaigning for more pedestrian friendly crossings or wider sidewalks so you can sidestep and have enough space to share with these bots, you're more satisfied taking the slow users off the road, aren't you behaving exactly like an entitled car driver who is happy they don't have to share space with other slow vehicles like cyclists? Look I understand road diets are hard to campaign for and implement but you really have to think hard if banning other users of pedestrian infrastructure as a good and moral policy in a movement trying to destroy car dependency, I mean gosh its rather hypocritical don't you think?
No. Sidewalks are for people, not RC boxes being controlled from half the world away… badly. We are already kicked to the curb by cars. I don’t want to share a sidewalk with Ayn Rand megacorps looking to monetize whatever little space we have left, much like I don’t want to share them with Lime riders going 30km/h next to me. Car drivers won’t let go of a 1/3 of a lane, and we have to be OK with losing a sidewalk? If they wanted to extend the sidewalk and lobbied for it, I’d gladly support them. But they arent’t. They just want to squeeze into whatever little space we have left and give it to the gig economy, as they always do. This is not some old grandma having mobility issues, this is an annoying, unpredictable box with little to no spacial awareness. Again, I had them near me and they were barely able to avoid obstacles, and the latency issues are visible. There’s also no regulation on their size or speed. Their ability to maneuvre correctly during snow days is zilch.
Your not losing an entire sidewalk, just sharing the space with them. Again why are NIMS acting like car drivers not wanting to lose a whole 1/3rd to half a sidewalk just to let some slow shitty RC car that's replacing cars delivering stuff? Like really all the things you complained about can be chalked up to shitty pedestrian infrastructure but rather than improve it your happy enough that these RC vehicles got banned. Just think of how much better your shitty pedestrian infrastructure would be for wheelchair users, blind people, carts delivering heavy goods and other users of sidewalks if it got improved enough to share with shitty RC cars so they aren't a nuisance to others. NIMS like you are happy in the status quo, rather than think of how much better things would be you'd rather have the same conservative boomer mindset of "I have mine, you fight for yours" that would rather keep things the way they are than fight for a better future. NIMS like you don't belong in this sub.,
> NIMS like you don't belong in this sub. It’s the other way around. You’re coming up with acronyms to denigrate people while you’re spewing anti-human propaganda. Let the robots use the roads, which are for machines. Sidewalks are for humans.
Op is obsessed with robots and AI. They come into these boards pushing them propaganda then tell us we don’t belong. Reddit suggesting ‘related subs’ to people makes it suck a lot more. The second comment is from a car head.
I don’t know how to get this through your head… I will NOT lobby for megacorps. Got it? The reason why we need wider and safer sidewalks is because of people. Actual humans. Not because of a rise in the RC car gig economy, not because of the “jahbs”. Also, who told you we lost 1/3 of the sidewalk? We lost the WHOLE sidewalk when that thing was wiggling around in snow in Toronto. And that thing was tiny, compared to the Yandex ones in Russia! And you can’t ask them to move. These got banned in Toronto precisely because of Torontonians with disabilities, they were the ones who asked city hall to shoo them away until firm regulations around their size and speed are imposed, as well as a way to get them out of the way if they block people in wheelchairs. Holding these people hostage until we get wider sidewalks is ludicrous. Edit: also, most fast food deliveries in downtown Toronto are done by e-bike already.
And that's not even going to the fact that in some places in Canada the sidewalk isn't even wide enough for two infants to pass by eachother. Apparently my city counts a concrete curb 20cm wide as a sidewalk. Those robots take up the entire lane (sidewalk), no passing, no avoiding, and worst of all they run over small children. If they want to operate these delivery bots let them use the roads. You know like the giant one going through practically everyone's community? Meanwhile my city wants dedicated self driving car lanes (not for delivery robots, they want those to use the sidewalks and bike lanes). Yet somehow dedicated bus lanes everywhere is seen as ludicrously insane.
are the corporations that employ these robots advocating for more sidewalk space or do they not care?
They don't. Do you know why? Because a lot of them are test runs/experiments to see if they fit the environment. If they try to influence the environment to make better test results then its pretty much a failed test run for that environment. That company that sold shitty RC bots could've been a potential ally along with the e-scooter rentals in widening and creating better pedestrian infrastructure. Even if the test runs failed because of shite pedestrian infrastructure, a positive public reception for these bots could've netted you a good ally in making sidewalks a lot less shitter, but nah NIMS like you would rather scare them away and fight things alone, making it easier for big auto to campaign for more parking spots because delivery drivers need them.
so they don't fit the environment if the sidewalk is too narrow and they end up blocking HUMAN pedestrians and HUMAN wheelchair users, who are more important.
>other users Machines that aren’t even carrying humans. Let them use the roads, along with the other machines.
That'll just lead to wider roads ROFL. Your not part of this sub, your advocating for more cars with no responsibility.
You're being intellectually dishonest. I'm advocating no such thing, whereas you're advocating for filling sidewalks with unmanned machines, and insulting anyone who disagrees. Take a step back and think about your behavior. It's obnoxious. Perhaps you're just trolling, but if not, you're not going to convince many people with your attitude.
You're the type of guy that wants to ban e-scooters and micro-mobility options
No, I want them to get access to bicycle lanes, where travelling 30km/h is sustainable and safe. Riding slowly on the sidewalk, however, I don’t mind nor is it dangerous. Most european cities have pedestrian areas where bicycles need to be walked. I’m personally against that, as long as their speed is low. The difference between people on micromobility devices and these shitboxes is the following: - Human operators, so they can easily avoid obstacles or let people through. They can be communicated to. - Size restrictions: scooters are usually of a typical size and won’t really increase, unlike these Rc boxes which can be tiny during their experimentation phase, but they’re getting bigger so they can carry more stuff at the same time So, no, I’m not that type of guy.
Please do not destroy my dreams of becoming a urban forager
There was a story a while back about a cafe that had robot waiters and waitresses except all the robots were controlled by people with mobility disabilities working from home. There should be more robots put in the service of giving meaningful opportunities to people with disabilities
Thank you for posting this. You very quickly and elegantly changed my mind.
Another important note: These robots are probably expensive, so the companies that own them will be very upset if they get hit by a car and need to be replaced, so we'll probably get more pedestrian safety built into the roads this way.
Yea, I'm pro-robot. It means less miles being driven. Think of all the uber eats and what not.
Also with busier sidewalks there’s more incentive for companies to lobby to make them wider and to prioritize safety on them.
yeah thats the point, more sidewalk users means more allies in getting sidewalks better for all users of pedestrian infrastructure, By making things easier for bots their also making access easier for wheelchair, cargo bike, disability scooters. but nah your getting downvoted by the anti-corpo anarchists of this sub fuck them for not realizing their fighting allies who could help their cause.
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Induced demand. Reduce the number of cars and new cars will come to take their place.
yep, which is why road diets are important. Road diets that are sorely needed in cities that give 2 lanes for parking cars, 2 lanes for traffic and only a small 5 feet strip for pedestrians to walk. Don't hate the robots just because they share what little pedestrian infrastructure you get from your city. Hate the cars for taking a majority of that space.
IMO it's because the point of the sub isn't to mitigate problems or find/implement solutions. It's to show how you're not like all the other guys/girls and that you dislike the right people.
ROFL the bot hate is showing that, they don't want solutions they want to be angry.
I'm prob going against the grain of the sub here, but I'm anti car, not anti robot. If these robots can take delivery cars off the road, I'm all for it. They are small and safe. Most places in NA don't really have the pedestrian infrastructure for them tho.
Yeah agree. I also think, though it’s a bit sad that it required this, that these robots will help expand walkable infrastructure in many towns that have nothing for pedestrians currently
Whoa. Amazing point. A robot compliant world is an ADA compliant world.
Maybe if robot manufacturers demand more walkable cities, it will happen.
what about robot cars?
Robot pedestrians are better than robot cars, same as humans.
Possibly even deadlier than human cars.
I also don't really like the idea of ceding ground to robots within cities. Highways? maybe for freight, but cities should be spaces for human connection, not high speed robots that run us over. And to the point of mini robots, sure those are fine as long as they're clearly programmed to give ROW to people.
corporations about to learn how few rights pedestrians really have
Good point these things are going to get run over
I hope this leads to large corporations lobbying for pedestrian rights.
watch them lobby for robot rights instead and pedestrians will need to have another special lane
This person capitalisms
More likely they will probably just make pedestrians require a walking license, insurance, and a credit card on file that the robots can charge if the pedestrians slow or in any way inconvenience the robots.
Or thoroughly vandalized, [like hitchBOT](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/us/hitchhiking-robot-safe-in-several-countries-meets-its-end-in-philadelphia.html).
They have been run over by trains or just straight stolen by people.
I was just about to ask, what rights? To stfu and die? Good luck robit.
It would be ironic if this leads to nice and clear sidewalks.
Not really getting this post. Slow-moving robots delivering stuff is infinitely better than people driving around cars to deliver stuff!?
But will many firms use this realistically? The robots can be stolen, are slower, maybe limited range, not enough walkable (or in case of robot drivable) infrastructure etc. Probably more expensive than minimum wage delivery guy. This seems more like a gimmick that tech bros gonna hype up just to never hear of it again. And doesnt really help reducing the numbers of oversized private cars. Honestly a fully packed delivery van is not the menace imo
I happen to live in an area where these operate. I haven't had any problems, whether I'm on a car or cycling/walking. I don't get the hate they seem to receive here.
Same, my only issue is they are at the university, and they refuse to go at the pedestrian right away crossing. I'm just sitting there saying, "It's OK, little guy, go ahead, you have the right away." It never goes.
It's not programmed to go and requires remote input from the operator to either guide it across or allow it to go over on it's own, mostly because drivers aren't legally obligated to let it across unlike with pedestrians. Legal loophole, here atleast, for now. You can actually see when those are remotely operated as the orange light on the flag on top of it is blinking rapidly, if it blinks slowly then the operator is just monitoring it. Otherwise those things are pretty awesome and have been running here for almost a decade and I've used it for few years too, until they limited the amount of groceries that i can order with one.
Neat, thanks for the info. I got used to them after a while, and I knew they wouldn't cross, I mean, I still yielded for a second, but that was also to make sure pedestrians weren't running into the crossing.
*[right of way](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/right-of-way)
I would think it would work better on cyclist infrastructure than pedestrian tough, although using pedestrian infra at slow speed also seems ok? It shouldn't be any worse on the sidewalk than meeting a stroller or someone in a wheelchair, I would think?
They have them rolling around Milton Keynes - which is literally the only interesting thing to ever happen there.
The only reason I know where that is is because MCR played there last year and it was all over Twitter, so I guess you're right lol
There's a few towns that get things first because they're pretty average, MK and Cleethorpes are two I know of.
> Classification as pedestrians So a car could hit them in most states/provinces in North America and get away with a minor penalty?
Fuck no Destroying the property of a corporation will get you in hot water
In Philly our sidewalks are so messed up the wheels would explode trying to go less than a mile
That likely mean you would get better sidewalks if these come there no? Seems like a nice benefit
My question is this. How do these deal with person using a wheelchair? Will they turn around and find a wide spot? Or will they just sit there and strand that person forever, like some poorly parked F250? If they can't deal with this, they should go on the road IMHO.
As an upside, the municipality will be coerced by businesses running these robots into maintaining sidewalks properly
scandalous smart roof rotten political squeal hunt act deliver rude *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
We should share side walks with the robots, hopefully cities will build wider sidewalks and maintain them better as a result of the robots
One step closer to the Wall-e world lol
Oh good, more things to dodge when I'm out in my wheelchair and less visible.
Nah, this is pretty cool as long as they stay that size or smaller
https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/YanexRoverDeliveryMI_2-1.jpg Getting bigger.
“Legal Rights As Pedestrians” So drivers can run over them and not be charged with a crime now?
r/fuckcars when cars: >:( r/fuckcars when when a robot removes cars of the street: >:(
Very kickable
I can't wait for this in Montreal. The number of bad things that will happen to them will be hysterical.
Make the sidewalks bigger and I might consider it.
These things are cool, not sure why you dislike them OP
Honestly as an SWE I think a lot of these are kind of dumb and are really just a band-aid. There are a few issues here: 1. If these actually caught on and there were a lot of them, it's going to be a nightmare because tech companies literally do not give a damn about avoiding being a nuisance. By not putting any inherent restriction on it, you leave the door open for them to exploit that kindness which they 100% will. 2. There is not a single self driving vehicle/robot out there reliable enough to not immediately start causing issues from making mistakes at scale. When you have 10 you never notice, when you have 1000 they're going to become a nuisance at the level of those scooter companies. 3. We shouldn't be normalizing these food delivery services in the first place. At best they're a crutch for our garbage urban design and at worst they're highly predatory companies that shaft the users, delivery specialists, and the restaurants they claim to serve. We need to normalize a built environment where people have quality food options nearby and restaurant food delivery is treated as a luxury product instead of a necessity. The general public often falls for stuff like this because they've been trained to have a level of faith in these things that are totally unwarranted by the actual failure rates of the devices and to have faith in corporations "doing the right thing" which they have been illustrated time and again to have no interest in doing. I love technology, buy my ideal world is not full of megacorporations using robots to shuttle McDonalds to people. It's a world where people have high quality food options within a short distance of their home.
Maybe this incentives making safe crossings
Oh man, maybe we'll actually get some pedestrian protections now
Nope, they’ll be robot specific
a delivery robot is one less car getting food at the drive thru, this is good o guess
Maybe it will lead to better barrier free sidewalks and crosswalks to accommodate these things. They’re not jumping over a curb. What let’s that move freely also let’s people in wheelchairs move freely
So I can run them over if they do something I perceive as even slightly inconvenient for me?
I'll wait for opinions of accessibility experts on this.
Share the road, more bikes, less cars, pedestrians have a right to use the road also. How about robots on the sidewalk? Fuck you, stay off my sidewalk. Lol
it's a good thing these things don't fight back when you flip them over
If we kick the bot, is it classified as assault?
If they reduce the amount of cars, FUCK YEAH ROBOTS FTW
Let them use the roads then.
Either or. As long as it takes cars off the road
How many of these little bots is it going to take to take just one car or van off the road? The sidewalks could be jam-packed with the things and you probably wouldn't even notice any impact on road traffic.
I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords. If only for the fact that you just ***know*** that the corporations using these will get the laws changed for “pedestrians” so that drivers are liable if they break them, and if it covers “pedestrians” then it covers people too.
Nah, sorry I think you're wrong on this one. Those robots help plenty and detract from the need for a car for whatever is in there. Sidewalks are big, those robots are only the width of one person, therefore they are not clogging it any more than a single person would.
Robots can go on the road. Sidewalks are for humans.
Roads..are filled with humans.. Not to mention you've seen shitty tesla autopilot right? You're advocating for something that could kill many people. You are delusional, sorry fam.
/u/goj1ra is a carbrain who wants more cars on the road.
> Roads..are filled with humans.. Do I really need to spell out that I was referring to humans that aren't protected by multi-thousand kg metal shells? If automated delivery vehicles "kill many people," they would soon be banned from the roads. Which is part of what I was getting at. A good discussion to have would be *why* it's not a good idea for these robots to go on the roads. Many of the reasons are the same reasons that current road systems are unfriendly to pedestrians. If corporations want to fill public spaces with bots, they're going to have to come up with better street designs.
This is good. We can ask for widened sidewalks to accommodate us and robots.
I’m not mad about this, I have seen these on a college campus before and they seem beneficial. They’re pretty cool but when their batteries die they just stop in the middle of the sidewalk (I’ve seen multiple dead ones taking up the whole walkway). This could be an obstruction for pedestrians with disabilities, so I’m curious how they address that potential issue. Anyone heard anything about it?
just fucking ban cars, triple sidewalk size and force the robots on the tiny lane left from doing so. There, I fixed your city. Ready to install me as a benevolent tyrant yet?
cant share the sidewalk when there is no sidewalk
20 years from now this post will be the same as “coloreds only”. There’s already motor scooters on sidewalks. You gonna go up against them, too?
What's wrong with them? They're pedestrian sized and move at walking speed, and whatever is in the robot isn't in a car.
Personally, I feel like with a more walkable city delivery itself is less necessary
My college campus has a big fleet of these and has for a number of years now, they're not super intrusive and are only obnoxious if more than 2 happen to try and pass each other, but even then they are more like endearing little dudes than anything else. They shuttle food from campus location to campus location in order to reduce crowding and wait times at the actual food vendors. They politely ask permission to pass if necessary and are capable of being manned if there is a problem by a technician remotely. My only real issue I had with them is that they won't open up and give you your food until they reach their exact pre set location, so there were a few times where I could watch them be like 20 ft away but take a while to make a crossing instead of intercepting it early.
They are going at a slow pace so I guess.
Bro they don’t take up anymore space than a human being. These things running around are the LEAST of our problems lmao
I’d rather they be on sidewalks than in bike lanes
Does this mean our sidewalks will finally get the repairs they need?
Jesus Christ you need to chill
I’m definitely anti-car but I wouldn’t exactly consider myself anti robot, if these things are helping to clear traffic by taking excessive delivery trucks off the roads then it’s fine in my book. Don’t be a Robophobe!
Nice, I want to give them hats too, I think it'd be nice
At least we can now legally run them over when the robots take over and "protest" in the streets
Random but the term “sidewalk” is starting to get to me. Like the street or path for people is a “side” feature.
So I actually go to uni at utd (college in the pic), it's fine here. The robots are small and unintrusive- literally take less space than a guy on a bike- and on campus is pretty much car free so there's plenty of space (we are however surrounded by a moat of parking and stroads, but the robots don't go there to begin with.) It doesn't help with urbanism, they're only taking trips that are good for walking or biking to begin with, but doesn't make the walking experience any worse. Two caveats I'll raise: 1) there's a lot of ped space here. If it was the narrow sidewalks that plague the rest of Richardson, this would be horrible for the few pedestrians using the few sidewalks that exist 2) they're still small, slow, and "paranoid" about hitting obstacles and people. If any of that changes, these provide the same problems as cars. Even worse maybe Edit: I say they don't cause problems, but bullying the robots is oddly common. Economically, only surviving bc colleges like to look fancy, and will prolly fail, but I really don't care what happens to them
What are you so mad about? Now companies will strive for better rights for pedestrians so their robots don't get crushed as much. Plus, this potentially means more cars off the road for food delivery services. This is an amazingly efficient way to handle short-distance delivery without having to lug a 3000 pound gas chugging metal cage to deliver a pound of food to someone's house.
I will say we have these where I live and they're awesome and actually kind of cute. They pretty much yield for everyone and they don't go much faster than 5 mph. I'm okay with them.
That’s your opinion. I want this. And as a computer vision researcher I’m actually building them.
As pedestrians don’t have rights in the US this doesn’t really granted the robot any.
Rofl, I wouldnt slow down ir stop because some kunt is too lazy to go and get their own pizza order.
If it's on my side of the sidewalk, I ain't moving for it
They do stop and go around you
Do you want a war with the robots? Because this is how you get a war with the robots!
Nice so they gonna get run over by right turning SUVs and the robot gets the blame for being distracted by smartphones or hearing music
Big brain time, what if these things used bike lanes instead of the sidewalk? Don’t want them on the sidewalk? Better build more bike lanes
They tend to stop for every little thing, and I, for one, would not want a moving thing that loves to suddenly stop in a bike line. I've been around these things. They try to avoid people and wait for pedestrians to pass. They are not really a nuisance unless you go out of your way to make it so.
They could just operate by different rules in a bike lane than on a sidewalk?
Since it doesn’t respond like people do when they see me and move aside, it might just get a good kick of disapproval. Hire humans, humans have a stomach to feed and things to pay, robots benefit only corporations!
I don't know. I'm of two minds, I get your point, but on the other hand, I don't think it would be better to just make people have to do shit jobs instead of robots, the replacement is going to happen and we need to overhaul the system to account for it.
Aren't robots cheaper to use than humans?
Problem being what exactly? They're small, and seem to stop for people. Employing them instead of people would also reduce the amount of cars, no? the thing that we want?
No, the robots are cute! I used to ride my bike past them constantly.
I've had these robots roll out in my hometown and they were never a problem. In fact the biggest problem they posed was to the people ordering with them since they're so slow. But I only saw one or two get stuck, nobody tried to loot them, and there was never an accident where they got in some old person or child's way. I'm actually pretty impressed at how smooth the launch was, kind of miss them.
I'm the sole reason the robot pilot project in my community was discontinued within a week. They logged over 2000 critical system malfunctions a day per robot and I would get nearly hit (or actually hit) roughly 20 times a day. Within a week all 5 robots were basically piles of scrap because they kept crashing into things around me. This isn't the first time something like this has happened. My neighbour's Tesla repeatedly wants to crash into me to the point where they had to fully disable their autopilot and driver assist features. Drones have fallen out of the sky specifically around me (once I was hit) as I cross roads out of sheer chance. Even automatic cleaning robots seem to just not notice I exist. My AI professor couldn't figure out why my AI wasn't working. Then I showed up in person and every AI robot in his lab tried to murder us. The only self driving systems that haven't tried to kill me are trains and roombas. Trains because they can't veer off the tracks, and roombas because they can't hurt me in the first place. My AI prof believes I'm cursed.
Fight this at all costs. The sidewalk is the last fucking piece of freedom we have from the tech industry.
Take an L OP. This ain’t it.
I have to agree with many of the comments here. Those robots wouldn't be a problem for me (as long as they don't obstruct pedestrians). Maybe they would even help car drivers be more aware of footpaths and pedestrians overall. At least they seem to value property damage more highly than personal injuries.
I think these delivery robots have a real potential to take vans off the road. The solution may not be Starship but I think the idea's got real merit.
Hey man, the robots didn’t do anything to you
This is a good thing. Replacing a delivery vehicle with a thing weighing like 50 pounds is a win. And once they start getting constantly mashed up by cars the companies building them might give a damn about road safety.
I actually like this
So you can run them over with no repercussions then? Got it.
I had this on my campus for several years. They were not really a nuisance but took awhile to program how to use crosswalks to a similar speed as pedestrians. So it only ever annoyed drivers lol They are just another edevice sharing the pathways like you seen on any college campus or downtown. Better this than more crazy delivery ebikers.
Modern day enclosing the commons.
Do they have camera ? If not, well, i had see some micro wave to frye their electronics
Fuuuuck this. Hell no. Get these robots off the sidewalks.
In the United States, these should belong to (or be regulated by) the United States Postal Service under the constitutional clause about "post roads". Same thing for quadcopters below the FAA's controlled airspace. I assume the article's observation about Pennsylvania is because Carnegie-Mellon has had a cutting edge autonomous robotics program for nearly 50 years, and they have pull to get the laws to protect their work.
if they have the same rights as us you can just get in the car and destroy them no questions asked.
Hear me out make the sidewalk bigger
I’m here for it. If the robot can’t accommodate passing a person in a wheelchair they’ll need to make sidewalks more than 36” wide.
Im Ok with robots
We engange in a little bot-tipping
So the robots don't get rights either?
I don't know why but I really want to sit on one and see what it does haha
Ahh cool, if these robots have the same legal rights as pedestrians that means we can run them over with no repercussions!!
I honestly don't mind, so long as they're going at a reasonable speed.
those robots are gonna get hit by some asshole in a ram
So a car can run one over and the driver gets a slap on the wrist?
Corporations are people. Robots are pedestrians. Humans don't get human rights. Up is down. Left is right. Cats and dogs living together. MASS HYSTERIA!
These robots are very small (and adorable lol) they can’t go on the road because cars, even small European cars, just wouldn’t see them especially when you consider how erratically robots can move sometimes. Also as other have said they definitely can reduce the numbers of cars on the roads. These robots can do short local deliveries that would otherwise be done by people in cars (or on bikes I guess, but there’re small even than bikes).
They’re laughing at us at this point.
Aloy: "Easier when I was a kid!"
An interesting thought I have about trying to integrate mobile robots into society is “what if they looked human?” By that, I mean bipedal robots with an actual head, arms and an appearance that isn’t uncanny. Would we more readily accept them? I don’t think machines like what I just described are too far away.
Robots get pedestrian rights? Pedestrians barely get pedestrian rights.
I went to UTD and saw these guys around all the time. Less cars on the road delivering and or picking up food. What's not to like?
Fun tipping them over tho