A convergence of the two electric vehicles would solve all problems: once you drop off your e-scooter at your destination, it runs off by itself to deliver burritos for someone else.
this is Uber's strategy.
Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots
41–50 of 446 posts
Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots
#42I understand this person is making a judgement on the state of mind of others, so it may not at all be accurate with regards to the people actually clearing the scooters, but I found this interesting nonetheless, that the author assumes this: > I just observed a couple of students clearing a path out of pity for the robots. I understand why people might feel pity for robots. People become attached to all sorts of ina…
There have been a few studies that people have actual sympathy for robots in distress.
Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots
#43I wonder if it is possible to measure the volume of poorly discarded scooters and properly parked scooters and compare location to location.
There is an area I visit often and it started with lots of poorly parked scooters but after a while ... I didn't see many. I don't know if folks just did a better job or if the company scooter shepherds (don't know what to call them) were cleaning them up effectively or what.
On the other hand I have visited places where it was scooter chaos...
Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots
#44Absolutely hate these scooters from an ADA prospective. My neighborhood is a mostly quiet one near the center of a large city, where there are a lot of mothers who push their kids in strollers, older folks with canes, and some people even in wheelchairs. On the weekends -- sometimes the weekdays as well depending on the time of the year -- the city gets flooded with both tourists, and suburbanites who want to go to a…
The thing is there's no designated place to park them. You can't put them on the property line next to the sidewalk. Many sidewalks don't have a "planter" or other non-walking area. Sidewalks weren't designed for this. I think we should ban sidewalk scooter parking. The public right of way is not a parking lot for private companies.
As an aside: many (most?) people who need sidewalks choose to use the road instead because the sidewalks are inaccessible. Snow and ice doesn't get removed from all sidewalks (regardless of what regulations say), tree roots breaking up the pavement don't get repaired, large inclines/declines are a safety hazard. I know a regular-abled person whose face got mangled as she was riding her bike on a sidewalk and hit a chunk of unrepaired sidewalk and went over. Sidewalks need a redesign.
Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots
#45I understand this person is making a judgement on the state of mind of others, so it may not at all be accurate with regards to the people actually clearing the scooters, but I found this interesting nonetheless, that the author assumes this: > I just observed a couple of students clearing a path out of pity for the robots. I understand why people might feel pity for robots. People become attached to all sorts of ina…
> I understand why people might feel pity for robots. People become attached to all sorts of inanimate objects. But I'm still astonished at the same time. These robots have no feelings. They deserve no pity, they're robots!.
That's what EVE also said.
Regards, WALL-E
Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots
#46I understand this person is making a judgement on the state of mind of others, so it may not at all be accurate with regards to the people actually clearing the scooters, but I found this interesting nonetheless, that the author assumes this: > I just observed a couple of students clearing a path out of pity for the robots. I understand why people might feel pity for robots. People become attached to all sorts of ina…
I think the we're all sympathetic to the idea that one person's carelessness creates an impossible problem for someone else.
>Don't donate free labor to corporations.
That's absurd, someone takes two seconds to move an object so someone else can get their food on time. That's just being a good human rather that sweating about "free labor to corporations" first.
Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots
#47What's the business model here? It seems like delivery bots could only work on wide walking paths on closed campuses. Or are the startups here assuming we'll build dedicated infrastructure for them? I can't imagine they would ever work in real world cities (putting rolling roadblocks on busy public sidewalks is antisocial at best, and besides they're bound to get blocked by obstructions en route that require them to…
If the new infrastructure cost is less than the old manual labor cost, you can bank on the infrastructure being built. Truckers holding out on "only humans can handle last mile" are in for a surprise when we start rebuilding the last miles.
Well, the tide has been turning in many cities towards building more human-scale infrastructure by improving walkability and protected lanes for bikees/scooters etc. Delivery bots have a severe risk of wrecking the "flow" of sidewalks and bike lanes by being slow or just behaving robotically instead of like a person.
(Side comment/why I'm interested: I finally have bandwidth for civid engagement and I decided I'd like to work on helping my already cycling-friendly city enact policies to encourage food delivery services to use bike delivery, as part of its upcoming bike network plan.)
Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots
#48I understand this person is making a judgement on the state of mind of others, so it may not at all be accurate with regards to the people actually clearing the scooters, but I found this interesting nonetheless, that the author assumes this: > I just observed a couple of students clearing a path out of pity for the robots. I understand why people might feel pity for robots. People become attached to all sorts of ina…
The robots are feeding hungry people. It's all about people in the end.
Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots
#49Any idea which company is currently delivering food with these robots?
Starship
Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots
#50No post body was provided.