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

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."

Comments

buggy whips

[Anonymous Coward]

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

No

[phantomfive]

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.

Re:No

[PopeRatzo]

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.

Correct

[SuperKendall]

After many, many visits to SF, both walking and biking scores of miles all around the city - I would say the city was actually designed as a kind of massive DARPA challenge to see if someone can design a warbot robust enough to survive the most extreme conditions.

I would say if a robot could last a week wandering around various parts of SF, I would have no problem sending it into Syria or Afghanistan.

P.S. - Robot makers, if you value your product at all please for the love of God make it poop proof. You'll see.

Ruthless killers

[Waffle Iron]

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.

That's obvious. Robots, being machines, have no empathy. Like any successful predator, they are going to first target those vulnerable individuals who get separated from the main herd, regardless of the reason.