Memes aside, my friends and I genuinely would have murdered these things with rocks had they come out before we’d turned 18.
I’m all for delivery robots. The idea of having people in gas guzzling cars taking up huge amounts of city space while polluting, just so you can have a private taxi for your burrito is crazy. The main issue here is them taking up sidewalk infrastructure instead of car infrastructure. Fix that and we’ve got absolutely no problems. Tiny electric vehicles SHOULD be delivering things. Fixing this infrastructure problem is another great time to fix deliveries in general blocking side lanes, bike lanes, and slowing traffic where it does actually need to flow.
While we’re at it, fix all traffic. Switch to a modified Dutch design of three types of roads (highways, distributor roads, and access roads) to further eliminate car interactions with pedestrians, cyclist, and yes probably small bot interactions. They should only be mixing on access roads. Dedicated and separated car lanes, bike lanes, and walking paths, and shared delivery lanes for bots and manned cars on access roads. It’ll take time, but a simple plan and slow progress will eventually fix things and cause less havoc like adding cars did to cities that were all horse based.
In Atlanta last year, I watched one of these turning in tight circles for a couple minutes before I got bored and moved on. At least it wasn’t in the street.
The technology has emerged before the infrastructure.
This is a fairly generic complaint that humans have had for 1000s of years.
I wouldn’t worry about it.
If a human courier walked at me and wanted to go through me, I’m allowed to push them away. A robot doesn’t have more rights than a person. Not likely to happen to me with a robto where I live though.
Fuck them clankers.
Hey now don’t disrespect my boys in the CIS.
What law would I potentially break if I tipped one over?
I’ve never seen one IRL where I live, they wouldn’t make much sense in suburbia, but I suppose I might come across one someday, if they keep multiplying.
I’m kinda surprised that these things aren’t being stripped for parts by meth-heads TBH
Fall over in front of it and sue the Conisbrough for damages. If it’s got wheels it’s a fucking car and it should be on the road.
So little kids on bikes should be on the road? Skateboards should be on the roads? Wheelchairs should be on the road?
Ideally yes for all of these with maybe the exception of wheelchairs, cars should be small enough and roads large enough to accommodate small man powered vehicles.
If it’s got wheels it’s a fucking car and it should be on the road.
Professor Xavier stares menacingly
Probably property damage. Same as if you stomped a kid’s radio controlled car.
You don’t have to damage it though… Just gently roll it on it’s side for a little nap.
Tape over all its cameras and sensors.
Disconnect its battery.
Remove at least one tire.
I wish we could roll extra apostrophes on their side too.
I think the company could still likely chase people who do that for damages if something broke or for lost profit since it would be pretty clear that it was intentionally disabled/intended to stop its function so it would be pretty clear in a civil court that there was tortious intent.
I wouldn’t personally recommend doing it on these, they are essentially walking cameras.
What is you just put a cup over its lidar sensor.
Or put a traffic cone in front and behind it? Definitely don’t do that though, it’s possibly illegal.
To be fair, the delivery robots I’ve seen (made by Yandex, which is known for bleeding-edge developments in self-driving technology) made good job to be as unobtrusive and predictable as possible, while also avoiding humans in quite a large range.
My only issue with them is that these are camera-equipped devices rolling the streets and likely sending all that footage to their Big Tech daddies. Besides that, they do their job well, reducing the need for hard human labor.
I’m sure the people who were surviving off that hard human labor are thrilled
“Won’t someone think of the buggy whip makers?”
Not saying you’re against it, but having an actual social safety net and not worrying about particular industries/workers/special interests is a WAY better way to think about governance and change.
I’m surprised that those who lost the work aren’t administers or some beneficiary of it. UBI seems to be the way??
UBI would never happen if the union lobbyists have their way. Who would unions “protect” if the costs of food and shelter are taken care of? That’s a lot of dues they won’t get, and that adds up to some serious dosh.
Eliminating terrible jobs may come with new, somewhat less crushing ones.
The reality of the labor market on its lower end is that plenty of jobs are unnecessary and artificial. They are meant to generate employment while not reducing working hours or (re-)educating people to take jobs that are actually in demand. It is a simple band-aid, that is easy for the government and good for capital (as it gets both incentives from the government and a pass on building a gig economy).
The more terrible, crushing jobs we eliminate, the more the government is forced to actually do something meaningful about the labor.
Delivering food is hardly what I’d consider “terrible.” Delivering food for big tech companies who see you as expendable trash is though. The only reason why these robots are being made is not to make the delivery people’s lives easier; it’s to pay them even less.
Delivering food and other items from online stores is hardly terrible or crushing. That would be working at a slaughterhouse or gathering berries under a scorching sun. Delivery isn’t as cozy as sitting in a nice, warm office, but a lot of students do it because it’s accessible and pays their bills.
There’s not one, but plenty of terrible jobs.
I’ve been at the slaughterhouse, and it is indeed one of the most horrific experiences I had. The smell of stale blood, the heat, the constant repetition, and normalized violence. It takes a mental toll.
And working in delivery (which I also did) takes a physical one - especially when you’re a walking courier, which these things are aimed to replace. Back problems, damaged feet, severe calluses, chafing, muscle pain, high risk of all sorts of traumas…the list goes on. Add to that that the rates paid often force these people to overwork way past their healthy physical limits, and you get a recipe for disaster.
Students choose it, because they need an unqualified job that can adapt to their study schedule. Gig work does that. But the rest is pure exploitation, which finds its reflection in health issues, lack of time and fulfillment, and, in case of students - a fall in academic performance.
If you see one chuck it in the river
Please don’t pollute the rivers. Do something else please.
A lot of sidewalks in major cities don’t have room for these. Especially if you account for traffic, light, and power poles, street signs, bus and trolley stops, subway and El entrances, sidewalk trees, garbage, trash and recycling bins, sidewalk grates, cellar entries, cracked sidewalks, etc, etc, etc. And suddenly you’re being asked to give up one piece of space that’s supposedly reserved for you, to yet another ‘move fast, break things, get permission later’ techbro “innovation” that no one’s asked for.
There’s no regulation over them, no standards that they have to follow or how to behave, no way for the public to specifically identify a robot when they encounter it in public (like, say, your robot ran into my car or whatever).
I’d only allow them if each robot carried a certain amount of insurance, was registered and had some kind of license plate, had turn signals (I don’t know if they do, the ones I saw didn’t), had limited operating hours and locations, were forced to move aside for humans, etc - basically make them the absolute lowest priority thing on the streets and sidewalks. Streets, bike lanes, sidewalks, subways, etc, were each built for specific forms of human movement. If techbros want to introduce a new type of system, they should be forced to build their own infrastructure to support it (no idea what that looks like for delivery robots), instead of just blatantly overloading already-stressed public infrastructure.
they should be forced to build their own infrastructure to support it (no idea what that looks like for delivery robots)
Tunnels, at least in heavily populated areas. They already make pipes that should be big enough. It might require a slight redesign of the bots so that they can “climb the wall” a short distance to pass each other, and maybe extend/retract some bits depending on whether they’re inside or out, but my heart would not exactly bleed over the money spent. And they’d be out of sight, out of mind most of the time for the rest of us.
Food in the tunnels is how you get even more rats… And what would happen when one breaks inside. What about rotting food spillage.
If they are going to put in tunnels, they may as well just put in a pneumatic tube system so the robots wouldn’t be needed.
and that’ll be a lot cleaner. I won’t be ordering my food from things running in open tunnels of big cities, they’ll be smelling of piss within a day
It would be somewhat ironic if actual side walks were implemented to support these things on those affluent car dependent neighborhoods and people discovered cars should not be the focus when designing roads.
A lot of sidewalks in major cities don’t have room for these. Especially if you account for traffic, light, and power poles, street signs, bus and trolley stops, subway and El entrances, sidewalk trees, garbage, trash and recycling bins, sidewalk grates, cellar entries, cracked sidewalks, etc, etc, etc.
That’s pretty awful because it seems to me they take about the same space as a wheelchair.
Hopefully this forces tech companies to discuss with the government regarding the increase in walking space and reduction of car traffic in inhabited areas.
But my food might not arrive hot if all this is in place…
/s
Fuck you botly, I’m going clankertipping
“THAT’S CALLED CLANKTIPPING! HA HA!”
If one of these bumped into me I feel like I’d want to tip it over in response.
Well you definitely can’t let it leave after hitting you, it’s got to remain at the scene to exchange insurance information. Hit and runs should be treated the same as a delivery driver hitting someone then leaving the scene.
I wouldn’t just feel it, it would be on its side.
Welcome to the Resistance. Simple steps like this are the right response.
TBH I think I’m at the rebellious point of do it without it bumping into me. Steal it’s cargo and dump it somewhere.
Saw a video of one of these things at an intersection asking a pedestrian to hit the walk button for it. He just laughed and said nope. I bet a real person could hit the button.
The thing is it it was an overall fair system most people would get along with the machines. But capitalists and ‘leaders’ have started to make us hate it.
Why would I have to share the already limited walking paths with these robots in a fair system?
Footpaths, the new roads
These must be pretty haltable tbh. Either by covering the lidar and I am guessing there will be a safety stop button somewhere. What happens then can the be force rebooted?
And how do they cross the road can the be fooled? Are they crossing after a sound occurs or is it a can see them being gps.
It’s gonna take bunches of us rounding them up like sheep and hearding them towards a locked field.
They’ll have cameras and gps though. So be careful, the cops might protect it more than humans. Catch it in a faraday cage maybe.
The cops are here to protect the property of the higher class, of course they’ll protect it more
They seem portable enough to lug to a river which is exactly where it would go if one hit me or anyone i was with.
Just don’t leave it there though, the world is already so polluted.
“broken-down robots causing obstructions”
It’s littering. Call the sanitation department.
This is just one of many, many pieces of technology that have been just put into public from tech companies whether we like it or now. And they do it because they know there is no regulation, nor will there be anytime soon to reign it in.
No wonder. The roads are not built for these things and nobody expects them there.
This may provide the first actual usecase for SUVs in cities. They seem to be about as tall as a child, so presumably invisible for the suv drivers.
Hopefully the robots will get mowed down when trying to cross the street.
