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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

#371

Post by emmelaich »

opportune wrote: post #354
vasco wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Always go through the right side, is this not a rule in your country? I'm asking not knowing where I learned it, but it definitely is a social norm to take the right side of the sidewalk anytime this may happen. Everyone just does this and it works out great.

Oh how I wish everybody understood this. Even in crowded cities in the US you get a lot of people who do not understand this. A minority to be sure, but a sizable one (I’d estimate between 5-10%, probably 10% but sometimes people who aren’t cognizant of this are accidentally correct in their pathing choice). Unfortunately this means you need to sometimes make split second decisions that this person probably has no id…

We move to the left in Uk, Aus and some other formerly British influenced countries.

Except! for escalators in the London subway. There you stay right. Presumably because of so many tourists from the US and the continent.

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

#372

Post by aahortwwy »

burlesona wrote: post #123
_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…

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’…

No thanks.

I spent five years living on a street with very large sidewalks (at least triple-wide, if not quadruple wide). Cyclists and scooter riders were just as inconsiderate of pedestrians. Traveling at dangerous speed, weaving across the whole sidewalk, and parking the vehicles in remarkably inconvenient spots were all very common behaviors.

The problem is cultural. People in larger, faster, more dangerous vehicles seem to think they have right of way in shared spaces and that everyone else should get out of their way. Anyone who's ridden a bicycle or a scooter on a road also used by cars will have experienced this.

Compare this to Tokyo, where there's less space, more of it is shared, but people don't behave like I've described above.

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

#373

Post by monksy »

mywittyname wrote: post #295
rtlfe wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would be glad to not see scooters as the enemy if they weren't so dangerous for everyone involved. There's absolutely no comparison between the dangers of scooters and cars. Every person who decides to use a scooter instead of driving or taking a taxi is having a huge positive effect on safety.

The thing is, cars operate on roads, while pedestrians operate, largely, on sidewalks. Roads have lights and signals to help mediate situations where pedestrians and cars need to use the same stretch of road. Pedestrians only really need to worry about cars at crosswalks, and even then, the most dangerous situations are cars making left turns (who can't see the cross walk in use). Scooters are vehicles and should ope…

(Chicago reporting here)

> A scooter on the road is a net gain to safety. But a scooter on a sidewalk is a net loss.

And that's how they (and bikers) use those things aggressively. They have no concerns for the people who have the right to be on the sidewalk. (In Chicago there is an ordinance against both on the sidewalk) Remind a biker/scooter on the sidewalk about the bike line.. they act like you just shot at their family.

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

#374

Post by ladberg »

DamnableNook wrote: post #367
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…

Kiwi bots aren't (weren't?) actually AI controlled. They had human drivers in South America that controlled them remotely. If one attacked you, it was either the human driver going agro, or just a problem with the latency of the camera -> cell network -> streamed to South America -> driver inputs command -> sent back to the US -> over the cell network -> back to the bot. And the cameras they have were pretty bad (the…

I believe (as of a few years ago) that Kiwi bots are semi-autonomous, meaning they do have someone watching the camera feed but the bots themselves can move in a given direction and will stop if an object is detected.

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

#375

Post by dillondoyle »

djohnston wrote: post #2

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

Or take a lesson from cops 'non lethal.' just shoot some rubber bullets into eye balls, deploy tear gas. or since this is a college campus how about just the stinkiest sting bomb you can think of lol.

doesn't help clear the debris but a good agro move.

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

#376

Post by rolandog »

DamnableNook wrote: post #367
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…

Kiwi bots aren't (weren't?) actually AI controlled. They had human drivers in South America that controlled them remotely. If one attacked you, it was either the human driver going agro, or just a problem with the latency of the camera -> cell network -> streamed to South America -> driver inputs command -> sent back to the US -> over the cell network -> back to the bot. And the cameras they have were pretty bad (the…

It's depressing to think that companies have normalized passing "mechanical turks" (exploiting workers from an impoverished country) as AI.

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

#377

Post by recursive »

outworlder wrote: post #294
vorpalhex wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And shoving it into traffic - or at least calling the police and pressing charges - would have been the right thing to do! If you want to use robots, fine. You are still responsible for them and any people they bowl over!

> shoving it into traffic Right, let's cause a full blown accident because a robot bumped into me.

I generally object to the use of the word "accident" for "car crash", but in this case, it seems particularly inapplicable.

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

#378

Post by [deleted] »

nkrisc wrote: post #26

I 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…

[deleted]

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

#379

Post by powersnail »

js2 wrote: post #284
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…

I’ve had this happen with actual humans. A human is coming toward me on a path. I zig. They zig. I zag. They zag. We walk into each other. It must be some kind of human path finding bug. :-)

You need to update your firmware. They fixed this deadlock behavior in the new version.

Whenever that happens, I fully retreat to my right side, standing sideways, and gesture them to go on like a restaurant waiter.

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

#380

Post by Symbiote »

vkou wrote: post #368
Symbiote wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Copenhagen's experience is normal, then ample bicycle (etc) parking won't change the parking behaviour of rental scooter users. They will still dump them on the sidewalk (or in the bike lane) the instant their journey has finished. They'll also ride two or three on one scooter, without any awareness or regard for cyclists in the bike lane or pedestrians crossing the road. I strongly suspect the companies encourage…

> They will still dump them on the sidewalk (or in the bike lane) the instant their journey has finished. They'll also ride two or three on one scooter, without any awareness or regard for cyclists in the bike lane or pedestrians crossing the road. Ticket the scooter company for improperly parked/docked scooters in geofenced areas where parking/docking is available. The scooter companies will update their software &…

The scooter companies had over a year of negotiations with the city, and nothing improved.

Copenhagen already has bike racks on most streets in the centre. The blue Cs and blue dots are some of them, many more aren't marked:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/55.6782/12.5735&layers...

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