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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

#421

Post by 0dayz »

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…

Or maybe focus your attention on an area where it makes more sense to vigilant about greedy corporations (join and advocate within a political party).

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

#422

Post by joveian »

hermitdev wrote: post #346
throwhauser wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does it do that can't be accomplished with something the size of a remote controlled car?

Pure speculation on my part, but having it around 5 feet tall is presumably for the optical cameras to have a better view of the majority of adult human faces. If you're talking a remote control car (at least like the one I had as a kid), any camera is either going to get great photos of people's ankles & shins, up their noses if they're close, or lose detail because they'll have to be too far away to get a decent an…

Above skirt height is hopefully more than just a good idea for a camera with a upward view.

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

#423

Post by Hakashiro »

MathCodeLove wrote: post #388
rolandog wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

"It is okay to pay sub-living national wages to foreigners in other countries because their cost of living is lower"

And I suppose you should also add they must stay there and never come to your country because then your job is at risk?

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

#424

Post by watwut »

rosndo wrote: post #420
watwut wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does not matter what attitudes people should have. It matters which they actually had. The "feel that they’ve been unfairly imprisoned in their homes by the rest of society" was very right wing attitude. Even in places with no lockdowns and no restrictions. Even left wing disagreeing with this or that measured would talk about these in less emotional terms.

This sounds like some strange US bullshit to me, I’m not interested in importing what you’re selling.

Given that topic under discussion is US campus and behavior of Americans, the way attitudes are spread in US is relevant. In fact, "Americans" is only relevant demographics.

Also, coincidentaly, similar division occurred across Europe. The people more likely to be influenced by American conservative thinkers were more likely to be hostile to masks and lockdowns.

Honestly, how is any of that controversial?

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

#425

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

trhway wrote: post #364
nicoco wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you implying we should implement a smile feature to the delivery bots?

it definitely should smile before/while driving into your legs as well as when standing waiting for you to walk around. It can also mark you with the laser pointer to indicate that it does sense you. Communication is the key.

Somehow I doubt that most people would take a bot marking them with a laser pointer as a benign action, but maybe that's just me.

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

#426

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

icco wrote: post #409
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 thought this trend was a joke, did not realize people were actually using bots to deliver food.

The weird thing is that the first time I realized this was actually happening was watching "Ridiculousness" on MTV. Chanel (one of the hosts) mentioned that she had ordered food delivered and couldn't understand why the app just showed it waiting outside. So she goes out to see why the guy won't come up and ring the doorbell only to realize it was a food delivery robot waiting for her.

I live out in the middle of nowhere. Wonder what other stuff I don't know about happening in cities!

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

#427

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

pixl97 wrote: post #389
hahajk wrote: post #242

We were walking past one of these robots whose wheel got stuck halfway off the curb, so it was completely stuck. My friend helped it back up, and it had a prerecorded voice say “thank you for helping me!” It was unexpected and delightful to be thanked by a robot, we make sure to help any we see that are in distress, even though we know they’re owned by a private company with profits in mind.

Heh, I know HN doesnt like witty one liners, but... "Thank you, human, you will be spared during the robot apocalypse" Would be an equally funny and terrifying message.

Knowing the engineers I've worked with, it's just a matter of time :-)

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

#428

Post by MathCodeLove »

Hakashiro wrote: post #423
MathCodeLove wrote: post #388

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.

"It is okay to pay sub-living national wages to foreigners in other countries because their cost of living is lower" And I suppose you should also add they must stay there and never come to your country because then your job is at risk?

>"It is okay to pay wages below what we could live on to foreigners in other countries because their cost of living is lower"

FTFY. But, yes? How is that controversial?

>And I suppose you should also add they must stay there and never come to your country because then your job is at risk?

How do you draw that completely unrelated conclusion from the previous conversation?

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

#429

Post by rosndo »

kijin wrote: post #415
rosndo wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why? These are same parking spots I would park my car in. A parking spot for cars is useful to only one person at a time, if converted to a scooter parking space with some paint it can serve vastly more people. Straight up donating parking spaces to private scooter share companies is probably a net positive for the public.

In most urban areas, parking spaces for cars are paid for by people who actually use those spaces. If you don't pay for the space you take up, you get a ticket. The same should be true of parking spaces for scooters if we want to convert one to the other (which I think is a great idea, by the way). Urban space is valuable. If for-profit rental companies want to reserve some space for their own customers to pick up an…

In my area (Westminster, Central London) we have a plenty of free parking for residents.

Here, and in most of the country we have free parking for motorcycles.

Even the paid government owned parking spots probably don’t tend to actually be profitable.

> If for-profit rental companies want to reserve some space for their own customers to pick up and return scooters, they should pay the city and/or whoever owns those spaces

These spaces are not reserved for one specific company, they’re shared by multiple operators.

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

#430

Post by jsnodlin »

fishtacos wrote: post #58
duxup wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>>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. Someone who can afford a robot delivery can afford a human delivery for an extra 50 cents, or learn from this situation to not use that company again because they use robots and robots... suck, or further incentivizes the…

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