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Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

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Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#81

Post by Robotbeat »

rosndo wrote: post #72
0xbadcafebee wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 be…

> The thing is there's no designated place to park them. We have designated parking spots for rideshare scooters in London.

This is a good idea. Innovation sometimes requires some additional provision of public goods. Seems like a good way to solve the problem!

Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#82

Post by JaimeThompson »

thepasswordis wrote: post #55
_fullpint wrote: post #13

Absolutely 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…

> Usually when I see this, I just knock the things over and push them out of the way. So you make the problem worse ? Why don’t you take 2 minutes and push them to the side of the sidewalk if you care so much about ADA access? You can fix the problem you are encountering, and the people you want to protect CANT. You are choosing to make the problem worse for them? Why? I live in a major downtown full of these scooter…

>So you make the problem worse?

It might make the problem worse in the short term but maybe those leaving them in the middle will move them out of the way in the future possibly reducing the issue long term.

Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#83

Post by Cthulhu_ »

Accacin wrote: post #75
_fullpint wrote: post #13

Absolutely 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…

So a minor inconvenience for cleaner air in your neighbourhood? Ofc, I feel for disabled people in this situation, but personally I'll pick one up or move it if I see that it's in the way. Here when the were first released, the parking was a bit scuffed, but recently it seems people have been making a much greater effort to park them correctly.

That's still very dismissive of anyone using the sidewalks. Good for you that you pick up someone else's shit, but it's not a solution. These companies should take responsibility and fix the problem.

Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#84

Post by rosndo »

Robotbeat wrote: post #66
_fullpint wrote: post #13

Absolutely 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…

Riffing on your comment, but I think there has been a general increase in antisociality in the last few years (especially since the pandemic, which has traumatized society). Like people leaving scooters haphazardly lying around or you pushing over delivery robots instead of pushing them out of the way. People feel more and more justified to engage in antisocial behavior. And it feeds on itself. You see this as being…

> but I think there has been a general increase in antisociality in the last few years (especially since the pandemic, which has traumatized society)

It makes sense that people who feel that they’ve been unfairly imprisoned in their homes by the rest of society would feel rather bitter about that.

To restore faith societies could take steps to compensate those worst hit by pandemic measures (i.e young people), so far that hasn’t happened.

Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#85

Post by Cthulhu_ »

showerst wrote: post #61
_fullpint wrote: post #13

Absolutely 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…

This is my _exact_ experience, I end up having to move at least two a week to get our stroller past, and they are a huge pain when my wheelchair-bound mother visits. I consider myself a law abiding person but have been sorely tempted to load them up into a truck and toss them into the Chesapeake ...

Toss them onto all the access roads and grounds of the company that owns them instead, maybe they'll take a hint.

Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#86

Post by colechristensen »

r_klancer wrote: post #51
colechristensen wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These little guys or very similar ones wander the sidewalks of Mountain View freely.

Interesting, I'm sure somebody has made a Youtube video of them. Only been to MV once and that was before these were around. (EDIT: of course, there's also an East Coast/West Coast, or at least an old city/new city issue here. Based on your experience, can you imagine them working in NYC?)

I assume such robots would get murdered/mugged in NYC, they're not appropriate for busy sidewalks and are about as conducive to other people as an elderly person on the sidewalk using a walker (without the human understanding of "this person is a bit inconvenient, but they have a right to be here")

Mountain View is a pretty relaxed suburb kind of vibe with closely spaced residences and lots of mostly empty sidewalks.

A snapshot of one in the wild:

https://imgur.com/a/hLbmRkB

Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#87

Post by Cthulhu_ »

only4here wrote: post #77
bourgoin wrote: post #69

A couple of years ago, I was attacked by a Kiwi bot near a UC campus. This is my story. The bot and I were moving towards each other on a sidewalk, and when I came close it stopped, as they do when sensing an object in front of them. But there was an awkward moment as I tried to go around it and it repeatedly jerked forward an inch as its motor kicked on and off. Maybe I was walking around the very edge of its radius…

Saw another HN user's comment about automatic battle-bot features. Maaaybe it's not the best idea in this case!

I for one welcome our new robotic overlords.

Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#88

Post by rad_gruchalski »

thepasswordis wrote: post #55
_fullpint wrote: post #13

Absolutely 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…

> Usually when I see this, I just knock the things over and push them out of the way. So you make the problem worse ? Why don’t you take 2 minutes and push them to the side of the sidewalk if you care so much about ADA access? You can fix the problem you are encountering, and the people you want to protect CANT. You are choosing to make the problem worse for them? Why? I live in a major downtown full of these scooter…

> Why don’t you take 2 minutes and push them to the side of the sidewalk if you care so much about ADA access?

Because you’ll be doing this over and over again. How about those companies educate their users how to behave in a neighbourhood where those people are basically guests?

Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#89

Post by Cthulhu_ »

elteto wrote: post #10
djohnston wrote: post #2

It would be awesome if delivery robots had a built-in road rage mechanism that turned them into battle bots.

“Your delivery is delayed, our robot was electrocuted by another robot from a competing delivery company. You are important to us and we are working hard to get your delivery to you ASAP.”

Food delivery battle royale; you order a pizza, five competing companies send out their delivery robots. Only the winner gets paid.

Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#90

Post by Cthulhu_ »

klyrs wrote: post #73
djohnston wrote: post #2

It would be awesome if delivery robots had a built-in road rage mechanism that turned them into battle bots.

In a country with more guns than people? Yeah that's going to end well.

Guns? Boring. Flamethrowers? High velocity spinny disks? Sign me up!
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