[bigethan]

> If they were to commonly transport high value goods, theft would be a huge issue.

That was my first thought as well. Get a van and a sledgehammer and wait a few blocks away from their depot in the morning. Sure they could phone home, but what is the cost of maintaining a staff to protect the robots vs. just having the staff deliver things.

Reminds me of a friend who was a Marine Biologist. Their lab spent a lot of money to get an underwater probe that could go around and take automated readings based on a map. But the probe cost so much money that they had to follow it the whole time in a boat to make sure it didn't get lost.

[betimsl]

>> If they were to commonly transport high value goods, theft would be a huge issue.

The first thing I thought.

> ...they had to follow it the whole time in a boat to make sure it didn't get lost.

This should be a great input for this company making these, actually solves the issue of theft. One robot, one person to follow it from a distance and make sure it does not get lost or, ehem stolen.

[dfinlay]

> This should be a great input for this company making these, actually solves the issue of theft. One robot, one person to follow it from a distance and make sure it does not get lost or, ehem stolen.

A one to one relationship doesn't seem like it would scale. They could make their operation centers mobile by outfitting vans or buses. That would allow for visual monitoring as needed, and quick responses to breakdowns/thefts/vandalism. As an added bonus, they could see a net savings on downtown office space as well!

[chillingeffect]

Maybe it's more like this: a foreperson rolls up in a truck. Then a stream of about 20 of these fulla ciggies n beer loops through to the convenience store to drop it off. No heavy hand truck.

[Flenser]

If they were commonplace, they could monitor each other. As soon as one is tampered with, others could be re-reouted to follow the perpitrators. It would be like having a mobile CCTV network.