Intrusive robots, if they're not regulated on footpaths then people will end up wrecking them.
IN FEBRUARY, A lobbyist friend urged Erik Sartorius, the executive director of the Kansas League of Municipalities, to look at a newly introduced bill that would affect cities.
The legislation involved “personal delivery devices”—robots that, as if in a sci-fi movie, might deliver a bag of groceries, a toolbox, or a
prescription to your doorstep. It would have limited their weight to 150 pounds, not including the cargo inside. And it would have allowed them to operate on any sidewalk or crosswalk in Kansas at speeds up to 6 miles per hour, the pace of a quick human jog.
Lawmakers and lobbyists say the bill was drafted with help from Amazon. In later testimony to a state senate committee,
Amazon lobbyist Jennie Massey said the bill would allow devices like Scout, the company’s
bright blue, six-wheeled robot, “to bring new technology and innovation to Kansas.” She noted that Amazon had invested $2.2 billion in Kansas since 2010, and that the company employed 3,000 full-time workers in the state.
Sartorius knew the bill wouldn’t fly. “I think some members of the committee hadn’t really considered the impact on their communities,” he says of the bill. He worried about a provision that would have barred cities and towns from creating their own
robot regulations. Officials in Kansas City, Kansas, objected that the robots would be using public roads and sidewalks without paying into local coffers. A Teamsters representative said the legislation did not include enough testing requirements, and said the robots could eventually replace human workers.
The Kansas bill failed, but it was just one battle in a wider war. Amazon and FedEx seeded and backed similar bills permitting delivery robots in more than a dozen states this year. At least six have become law. ...
At least
two people with disabilities have written about uncomfortable run-ins with robots traveling in limited sidewalk space. Haben Girma, a former litigator who is deaf-blind,
was surprised this summer when she encountered a delivery robot operated by the company Starship Technologies on a sidewalk in Mountain View, California, and the robot didn’t maneuver around her and her guide dog, Mylo. A spokesperson for Starship didn’t comment on the incident but said that the company “has been involved with and supports the legislation” introduced in several states. ...
https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-fedex-delivery-robots-your-sidewalk/