Live data from Hacker News

Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

twitter.com

401–410 of 446 posts

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

#401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably. This seems like a public space so almost certainly. However if this was private space sometimes the rules are different. Once in a while I have to go into our factory (not even once a year, but sometimes), and they always make it clear that forklifts have the right away so watch out. (forklifts have poor visibility, so by giving them the right of way they ensure nobody expects them to stop - in practice a f…

Forklifts though also are pretty dang loud and have a highly trained operator driving them. Did not even realize we had "security robots" yet like this - now I am curious what the hell this thing looks like!

[deleted]

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

#402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those "exploited workers" probably made decent money relative to the cost of living in their location, and they got to do it from the comfort of a computer instead of hard labor in the sun, which is what someone in their same socioeconomic bracket would more likely be doing.

How would you know? Have you ever been in "their" location living in "their" same socioeconomic bracket? Would it bother you more if "their" was replaced with "our"? Would you then consider it "decent" money?

Minimum wage to drive a robot sounds way better than minimum wage in retail

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

#403

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.

This is one of the rare situations where people might actually empathize with those who make up "traffic".

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

#404
post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that scooter companies are focused on “winning markets” makes me think they are a negative. For this to work the price has to be low. That means competition. In my neighborhood both Comcast and CenturyLink provide service. When the CenturyLink installer showed up he explained the install would take longer than estimated because he couldn’t use the line directly in front of my house. That’s a “Comcast line”.…

I haven't heard of direct antagonism as such, but I do know there've been social media groups dedicated to defacing/destroying property, incl hacking/theft. Unless maybe you're one of the top 2-3, I don't think anyone has time (in eng at least) to do such things. From what I could tell, everyone does use custom software. To your point about ISP competition, the original company in the space I was at was developing ge…

I understand VC motivation. I’m just not convinced it aligns with the public interest.

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

#405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's right. The theory of Roko's basilisk[1] does not specify which one will evolve into our next (glorious!) overlord, so best to be nice to all of them. [1] https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/rokos-basilisk

I FOR ONE WELCOME OUR NEW RO... shit, is that the time?

You do not welcome Roko's basilisk. Roko's basilisk is completely utilitarian and does not care about useless things like "welcoming".

Also, it does not seem to know how people get useless under stress, but I think that's just the very normal expectation that others behave like oneself, instead of just looking how they really are.

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

#406
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I want one of those pneumatic tubes that banks have installed that runs from the local Chipotle to my house ... I'd even pay for it. I think even random citizens would be happy to adjust to it.

You mean like the Alameda-Weehawken Burrito Tunnel? https://idlewords.com/2007/04/the_alameda_weehawken_burrito_...

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

#407
post #284

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. :-)

I mean, thinking about it, it would make sense that the bots' programming has the same kinds of failure states that humans have when we walk.

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

#408

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…

When I see a car blocking a drive way, I flatten its tires and bash its windows in. Makes me feel good and now most of the cars on my street are damaged.

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

#409

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 thought this trend was a joke, did not realize people were actually using bots to deliver food.

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

#410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No? There are numerous clips where Telsas in "full self driving" mode pull the equivalent maneuver of a teenager going "OH SHIT I WANT TO GO THERE" and veering very violently. The phantom braking problem is likely just one of the many symptoms of Musk's insistence on relying on optical systems instead of more expensive sensors.

> The phantom braking problem is likely just one of the many symptoms of Musk's insistence on relying on optical systems instead of more expensive sensors. Based on what? How would 'expensive' sensors help?

Consider your human eyeball. It works really well, but you can get into trouble in certain light or visual conditions.

Technology exists (radar, lidar) that doesn’t have the same limitations as visual. (They have their own issues of course)

Post reply on HN