[dominotw]

we have these all over chicago and everyone hates them. I thought i hate it because they take up public sidewalks ( possibly illegaly) or that they are hurting delivery drivers or that some guy in india is watching me through the creepy camera on the robot.

But those are posthoc rationalizations i just seem to hate them and i cant really explain why.

[jszymborski]

I think it's very rational to hate them for taking up public infrastructure for pedestrians, which already is often neglected in NA cities.

Our cities already deemphasize people being out and about in public spaces, so car-centric, and this is an entirely intolerable insult to injury.

They further alienate folks from jobs in their community, they exacerbate the already artificial friction of just walking to a restaurant and being present in your community.

It represents an impressive amount of awful in a tiny cube.

[dylan604]

> so car-centric

Isn't this a solution to that though as the delivery would otherwise be made by a human in a car. I don't have these robots in my area, but I do have the Walmart delivery drones. Those are interesting to watch. A neighbor recently had a delivery by two drones where one approached within seconds of the first recovering the cradle before moving into the same spot. To the point that I was left wondering if the drones have self co-ordination abilities to know a fellow drone is already in place, or if the timing of the system was just right to avoid collision. Either way, I find the constant drone sound of them zipping by annoying. I'm a 10 minute walk from their base, so they are pretty constant.

[deaux]

> Isn't this a solution to that though as the delivery would otherwise be made by a human in a car.

No, it does the direct opposite. It makes it worse for humans to walk. It actually makes it better for non-delivery humans to take a car, because there's less delivery drivers on the road.

Improving car-centrism would be the exact opposite. It would improve the human walking experience and degrade the human driving experience.

[hombre_fatal]

Yeah, pedestrians are already an afterthought, getting this tiny sliver of walk space next to the massive road.

And now you have to share it with someone’s private burrito transport.

[cassepipe]

Well maybe if all the space was not given to cars there could be some little space for those small lightweight vehicles which is much more efficient than those stupid fat trucks (EDIT: by which I meant SUVs and the likes)

[left-struck]

Edit: I misunderstood what OP meant by trucks. NVM

How are light weight vehicles more efficient than trucks? That’s such a broad statement with absolutely no data provided to back it up. Efficiency matters a lot depending on the context. Delivering 40,000 kg of good cross country? Even a diesel truck is going to be more efficient than 10k little robot. Last mile delivery? Yes, obviously it’s not good to send a semi trailer to deliver a pizza.

The point is, those big fat trucks aren’t just there to annoy you, they are doing something pretty useful.

[Onavo]

I don't think OP's upset with the actual delivery trucks (though NYC banned them from city center for very good reasons). It's those F150 and Cybertruck pavement princesses and massive SUVs that are problematic.

[queenkjuul]

Nobody is using semis to deliver pizzas and nobody is using sidewalk RC coolers to deliver pallets, what are you on about

[left-struck]

Well that’s exactly my point, big trucks exist and are used for good reasons.

[heavyset_go]

Agreed, bicycle paths for bike delivery would be more efficient

[fontain]

They're an anthropomorphic avatar of everything that is wrong with the business of technology. They're the broken promises of technology with a face. The promise of technology that we've all bought into is a better world, a world that lifts people up, instead we've got these dumb little robots that drive around making it even harder for people to survive. If we lived in a world where everyone's basic needs were met, these little robots would make you feel different.

[queenkjuul]

Two of them have somehow crashed into bus shelters, smashing the glass, most recently on Lawrence iirc. That's good enough reason for me. I use those bus shelters, especially on Lawrence!

[ranger_danger]

Wait until you see the track record of actual delivery drivers.

[queenkjuul]

Well zero delivery drivers have smashed that bus shelter in the 4 years I've lived here but one RC cooler has