[HN Gopher] Delivery Robots Take over Chicago Sidewalks, Sparkin...
___________________________________________________________________
Delivery Robots Take over Chicago Sidewalks, Sparking Debate and a
Petition
Author : mikhael
Score : 21 points
Date : 2025-12-08 21:27 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (blockclubchicago.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (blockclubchicago.org)
| ElijahLynn wrote:
| Valid points by those concerned with taking over the sidewalks.
|
| I will also say, people riding electric scooters shouldn't be
| zooming along at 20mph (or pedal bikes) on sidewalks either,
| which are a true safety hazard.
|
| And on the other side, much better for our environment, to have a
| lighter weight robot delivering a burrito than a 2,000lb vehicle,
| in terms of net energy consumption/expenditure.
| mindcandy wrote:
| "About half of all food deliveries globally are shorter than 2
| and a half miles, which basically means that all of our cities
| are filled with burrito taxis"
|
| There is a future where a city's burrito taxis are replaced with
| drones rolling on the sidewalk or flying to the rooftops. And,
| the large majority of the remaining city drivers are replaced by
| robotaxis with multi-sensor 360 tracking. Where there are nearly
| zero parked cars. So, the parking spaces have been replaced with
| bike lanes of bikers and scooters with every robotaxi on the
| street planning around their motion.
|
| Far less fuel consumption. Far less street crowding. Far fewer
| accidents.
|
| And, of course everyone hates the idea.
| crooked-v wrote:
| Recently there's been a lot of anger in San Francisco about a
| Waymo (which have an excellent safety record with humans)
| killing an outdoor cat who that walked under the car and sat in
| front of a tire, when not long after someone was killed by a
| person backing into a crosswalk and it was a barely a blip on
| the radar.
| glitcher wrote:
| Pneumatic burrito tubes directly into my home is the future I
| want.
| kiernanmcgowan wrote:
| I'm working on a burrito artillery system. It's the ideal
| form factor for high velocity chorizo but the delivery tends
| to make a mess.
| slillibri wrote:
| I hate it because the last thing we need on sidewalks, at least
| here in Seattle, is more junk making it impossible to walk
| anywhere.
| CameronBanga wrote:
| The Alameda-Weehawken Burrito Tunnel is the solution.
| pirates wrote:
| Yes in fact I do hate the idea of dozens to hundreds of drones
| per day flying around my house and neighborhood.
| xnx wrote:
| 1) "Take over" is slanted language. More accurately "Some
| residents complain about delivery robots on sidewalks"
|
| 2) Remote control delivery carts are much safer and less
| intrusive than double parked delivery cars (sometimes unlicensed,
| untagged, and uninsured) or even delivery bikes (riding 20+ mph
| in the bike line or against traffic on 100+ pound "bikes").
| toss1 wrote:
| True, they are less intrusive than double-parked cars, and
| maybe vs some bikes, but that does not mean it is still not
| corporations trying to take private profit from using a public
| space.
|
| The videos of those particular bots show them taking up a
| substantial portion of the width of a sidewalk (and definitely
| the full width in tight spots next to trees & fences) and
| moving and positioning themselves very clumsily and
| discourteously. They just sit in the middle occupying something
| like half the sidewalk width trying to decide what to do next,
| forcing people to walk to both sides in ~1/4 of the width.
| These things are not even close to ready for prime-time.
|
| It is rude as a human to just stop in the middle of the
| sidewalk and unfold your map to figure out where you are going.
|
| Programming in this kind of rudeness is just stupid, and will
| rightly generate backlash that will not be good for the
| companies. Of course safety is first, but it'd be more safe and
| courteous to have it hug one side of the walk. And if you
| cannot do that safely, not only are you not ready for prime-
| time, you aren't ready for public Alpha tests.
| crooked-v wrote:
| I feel like part of this is people not being comfortable with the
| idea that they don't have to be deferent to the robots (i.e. do
| what you want, it will avoid you). That's perfectly
| understandable (nobody wants to walk in front a moving industrial
| robots), but is something these companies will have to work on if
| they want people comfortable around their bots.
| delfinom wrote:
| >Robertson shares Rodriguez's concerns, pointing to incident
| reports of the robots pushing neighbors off the sidewalks onto
| busy streets, colliding with bicyclists and even deterring
| emergency vehicles.
|
| Sounds like the robots don't do a good job at avoiding
| jeffbee wrote:
| You only have to glance at the photos to see that the thing that
| has "taken over" is parked cars. The allocation of space is
| moving cars, parked cars, trees, poles, signs, lights, and then
| the sidewalk. It is not a fact of geology that the sidewalk is
| that narrow.
| itsdesmond wrote:
| I live in a Chicago neighborhood where these are in use. They
| have very bright lights, actually blinding you as you approach
| one at night. They move much faster than is appropriate on a
| sidewalk. They position themselves in the middle of the sidewalk
| as opposed to the right hand side, impacting traffic in both
| directions. They round corners at intersections at below-eye-
| level, I've walked into more than one when they appeared in front
| of me at a corner. They park in the walkway while waiting for
| customers to retrieve their food. The hey are implemented in a
| way that demands everyone else gets out of their way. They have
| not attempted to integrate into the community, they have inserted
| themselves and we are to figure it out.
|
| I am receptive to the argument that deliveries made in cars are
| wasteful. I ride a bike exclusively, I am not a fan of delivery
| drivers jumping out of double parked cars all over town, let
| alone the environmental impact. But much like rental e-scooters
| being abandoned on sidewalks, these claim to solve some problem
| by creating new problems and making the common environment worse
| principally to create profit for the owners, and not honestly
| provide any increased convenience for the customer. I'm not
| willing to accept the cost being externalized onto every other
| member of the community. People who are against these are not in
| favor of Uber drivers crowding the streets, but the solution is
| not a good one. I walk to pick up my takeout order. Now my route
| there is worse.
|
| And before anyone starts yapping bout NIMBYs: the sidewalk is in
| the front yard, stupid.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-12-08 23:00 UTC)