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'Our Streets Are Made For People': San Francisco Mulls Ban On Delivery Robots (theguardian.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the job-loss-fears dept.

Norman Yee, an American elected official in San Francisco, has recently proposed legislation that would prohibit autonomous delivery robots -- which includes those with a remote human operator -- on public streets in the city. In a statement provided to Recode, Yee said, "our streets and our sidewalks are made for people, not robots." He also worries that many delivery jobs would disappear. The proposed legislation is causing a headache for one high-tech startup in particular. The tech company is called Marble, which uses bots fitted with camera and ultrasonic sensors to deliver small packages and food within a one or two mile radius. The delivery robots themselves travel at a walking pace and use cameras and sensors to avoid pedestrians and navigate pavements. The Guardian reports: San Francisco police commander Robert O'Sullivan is in favor of the legislation, fearing the robots could harm children, the elderly, and those with limited mobility. "If hit by a car, they also have the potential of becoming a deadly projectile," he told a local TV station. Marble CEO Matt Delaney says these fears are unfounded. "We care that our robots are good citizens of the sidewalk," he says. "We've taken a lot of care from the ground up to consider their need to sense and intuit how people are going to react."

8 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. buggy whips by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We must stop the impending automobile revolution. It worry that many buggy whip manufacturing jobs may disappear. In addition, they startle the horses.

    1. Re: buggy whips by fermion · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Our roads are made for people, not horses. We can deal with skateboards and unicycles and bicycles, but not your new fangled horse carriages.

      What is truly stupid here is that a self driving car is just a drone with a person in it. Why are they allowing Uber to test self driving cars, but have a problem with drones? Aren't they hey both going to clog the streets?

      --
      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    2. Re: buggy whips by PCM2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Our roads are made for people, not horses. We can deal with skateboards and unicycles and bicycles, but not your new fangled horse carriages.

      Actually, in San Francisco our roads are made for cars, trucks, and buses ... AND bicycles, skateboards, unicycles, etc, none of which are allowed on sidewalks where the people are.

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
  2. No by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't know who San Francisco streets are designed for, but it's certainly not people. For one thing, street signs are often hidden or non-existent. For another thing, in places where a "walk/don't walk" sign would make perfect sense, they are often absent.....even in areas with high pedestrian accidents. The street is partly optimized for driving, partly optimized for walking, partly optimized for biking, and partly optimized to being as annoying as possible to outsiders.

    The streets of San Francisco are not well designed by any perspective.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:No by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't know who San Francisco streets are designed for, but it's certainly not people. For one thing, street signs are often hidden or non-existent. For another thing, in places where a "walk/don't walk" sign would make perfect sense, they are often absent.....even in areas with high pedestrian accidents. The street is partly optimized for driving, partly optimized for walking, partly optimized for biking, and partly optimized to being as annoying as possible to outsiders.

      Man, if you think San Francisco is bad for pedestrians, you don't ever want to visit Houston. Gigantic city, and it's like they exist in a time after the emergence of giant office towers and highrises, but before the invention of sidewalks. Twelve lane superhighways all over the city, with insufficient signage, so drivers always have to cut across five lanes of traffic to make their turn-off. Lines on the highway that you can't see during the day or if it rains. Few trees, so a brutal sun, glaring like an angry god, cooks flora and fauna except for three months out of the year. No state income tax, so the infrastructure is either brand new or falling to pieces. No in-between. Everything made on the cheap, because people just come here to make some money (or used to, before oil went to $50/barrel) and nobody puts roots down here willingly.

      And the best part? Absolutely no zoning laws, so you'll have a lovely quiet little residential neighborhood with ugly faux-brutalist high-rises on the corner and a strip mall smack in the middle of the block.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:No by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't know who San Francisco streets are designed for, but it's certainly not people.

      They were clearly designed for one thing only: Enabling Steve McQueen to take his Mustang GT airborne at each and every intersection.

  3. Re:I'm surprised by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Then move out of there! I live in Mississippi and fresh/healthy food is dirt cheap here at farmer's markets.

    Food is not expensive in SV. It is about the same as everywhere else. The only thing that is considerably more expensive than elsewhere is housing.

  4. Re:Let's remove the washing machines too by Daemonik · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well, we sure can't make America Great by moving all the wealth into the hands of an elite few and then using high level AI robots to replace all the non-specialized workers either.