Live data from Hacker News

Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

twitter.com

191–200 of 446 posts

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

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes people get hurt or killed in car crashes, which just having insurance doesn't magically fix. And besides, if I were the scooter company, I'd be going after you who intentionally threw the scooter into the road, not after the last rider who parked it somewhere inconsiderate but not dangerous.

Are you aware that if you loan your vehicle out and it's used in a crime you're liable?

> Are you aware that if you loan your vehicle out and it's used in a crime you're liable?

That's...very much not true.

For certain torts related to the vehicle you would be liable, but unless you actively and with requisite mental state engaged in the crime, you would not be liable for a crime.

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

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funniest/strangest/saddest angle I've encountered on this thread so far is regarding disabled people potentially not getting their food... as if human delivery was somehow not an option.

I cannot believe you would type this comment electronically, thereby depriving a scribe, a courier, and a town crier of jobs. Three jobs gone, and for what? A snarky comment. The horror.

Your insipid examples imply improvement, whereas these "robots" imply "needing help from the general public".

My argument stems from a different angle, but yours fails completely.

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

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

I don't imagine that would help. Most of these scooter companies already do some sort of education regarding traffic laws... but when was the last time you saw a person on a scooter, stopped at a red light, wearing a helmet? The only way it'll be fixed is if someone actually enforces compliance.

I agree, and even if punishing bad behavior is appealing, I think it'd work best if Scooter Co. added sensors so it could tell/see where the rider parked the scooter, and rewarded good parking with free rides (which would also prevent griefing the last rider by quickly dragging it somewhere terrible to get them punished).

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

#194
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

In a country with more lawyers than people?

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

#196

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…

You should stop seeing scooters as the enemy. Scooter companies represent a lot of money that wants more space for pedestrians, bikes, and of course scooters in the city. They are a potential massive ally with deep pockets to push back against the car lobby. The battle here is not to fight over who has the right to be on the 10% of the street we call the sidewalk, it’s to take back some of the 90% of the street that’…

I would be glad to not see scooters as the enemy if they weren't so dangerous for everyone involved. Though I guess space is a big factor in that, now that I think about it.

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

#198

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…

What if they set up the scooter system such that if you parked the previous scooter incorrectly, the next scooter you rent squirts water on your pants? It's not technologically that difficult.

Or put little fisheye cameras on every scooter and if you park it incorrectly every scooter you walk past for the next 24 hours uses face recognition and blasts insults at you unless you go back and re-park it correctly.

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

#199
It's so disappointing to see people going on tirades against these things for no good reason other than seemingly to fit in with the trendy new "anti-techbro" luddite mindset. Automatic delivery robots and e-scooters are awesome. The future is awesome and we're living it and these people just want to be downers about it.

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

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The crime in this case is littering, and the person your hypothetical scooter company is going to pursue for moving the litter into the road where a car hit it is quite likely to be a minor whose identity you'll never determine. But you're creating circumstances for this outcome to be probable by leaving unescured scooters littering sidewalks. Much like leaving your car idling with a key in the ignition and the doors…

> The crime in this case is littering Doesn't something have to be trash for leaving it somewhere to count as littering? After all, improperly parking a car isn't littering, even if it's a Zipcar or something. > leaving your car idling with a key in the ignition and the doors unlocked But it isn't like that, since these scooters do lock their wheels.

> Doesn't something have to be trash for leaving it somewhere to count as littering? After all, improperly parking a car isn't littering, even if it's a Zipcar or something.

Any object improperly placed so as to be a public nuisance or health concern is litter. If you abandon an object obstructing sidewalks, it's a public nuisance.

In the case of a zipcar improperly parked there are more relevant laws with more severe penalties, automobiles have a whole world of explicit laws governing their safe use for obvious reasons.

In the case of bicycle rideshares we've long had precedent of a more responsible operator; velib in paris had dedicated bike racks for storing the bikes and the borrowers would be fined for abandoning the bikes. Velib employed staff in vans to regularly collect the bikes when they weren't returned to the racks. This is what it means to at least try not be negligent.

Post reply on HN