'We had to get out of the way': The backlash over delivery robots
The first time Chicago resident John Robertson saw a delivery robot trundling down the sidewalk on his street he was impressed. "I actually thought they
The first time Chicago resident John Robertson saw a delivery robot trundling down the sidewalk on his street he was impressed. "I actually thought they were kind of neat – it felt futuristic," he says. But his attitude started to change when, soon after, he was out for a walk with his family.
As another robot approached, they found themselves having to dodge it. "To us it felt a little off - the fact that we were on the one strip reserved for walking, and we were having to get out of
the way," says Robertson. "I started thinking about what it would be like for us to go for a walk as a family if there were dozens of robots with lights and cameras zipping around." The robots, more formally
known as autonomous urban delivery vehicles, have started to appear on pavements in a number of cities across the US, plus in the UK, Japan, South Korea and Germany, transporting groceries and fast food, using cameras, sensors and GPS to navigate.
The BriefWire