Soon the robots will be carrying, no permit needed.
You and I are humans, but that robot is not a human and I extend it neither rights nor respect.
Someone owns and operates it, and will lose money if you screw with it. Someone else won’t get their pizza that they paid for.
The person who owns and operates it is already losing money hand over fist as they burn through venture capital to ‘disrupt’ the delivery business. It will be a long time before autonomous robots are actually cheaper than paying a human to deliver something.
The person waiting for their pizza will get a replacement at no charge. Perhaps this time delivered by a human, as it should be.
Why “should” it be?
Maybe I’m leading a sheltered life, but this is the first I’ve heard of “robot delivery carts.” Do they travel on roads, like a motorized vehicle? On sidewalks? How fast do they go? I gather they’re much smaller and lighter than a car, otherwise it would be hard to tip them over.
And I can also see how it would be extremely tempting to take this unattended device and tip it over - kinda like cow-tipping, only in a more urban environment. As long as one didn’t damage the cart or steal from its contents, I can’t see what laws would be violated.
As a teenager (a very long time ago) I would not have been able to resist messing with them. I assume that if you stand in front of one it will stop and then try to go around. It would take little effort to send it down dead-end streets or make it get stuck in an endless loop. Could you climb up and ride the thing… Whoopee!
There is one type that rolls along sidewalks and does not go that fast, though I do not know what its top speed is. It is about the size of a suitcase and does not look like it would be that hard to tip over, smash up, or hem in with obstacles.
They look like an ice chest on buggy wheels:
This is another one, from a company called Starship Technologies.
Notice that video is from Ann Arbor (the U of M campus). I’ve only seen them carrying food a block or two from the school cafeteria to the dorms.
I guarantee that there’s no one thinking “I wish that were my job… walking 300 feet with a pizza for five minutes at minimum wage (and no tip), then waiting around for half an hour to do it again.”
And, by the way “A human not getting their pizza” is indeed a crime! Enough so that equipping the carts with flamethrowers is not out of the question…
I don’t agree with eliminating low wage jobs. There’s too many people that might not pay the rent without that job. Homelessness is already a big enough problem.
I wouldn’t object to blocking a robots path with a shopping cart. Any non-destructive means is fine.
I wouldn’t steal from anyone or any device. That’s not how I roll.
huh?
Lots of people work a minimum wage job.
Carrying pizza 300 feet is easier money than making the pizza in the kitchen.
And a whole lot easier than , say, loading trucks in a warehouse.
Sounds like a good gig to me.
You describe the method you would use to steal, and then say that you wouldn’t steal. You’re denying multiple people the use of their property. How is that not theft?
Blocking the robot isn’t stealing. Tech support would locate it and correct the problem.
Stealing would require taking whatever package is being delivered.
And hopefully someone will slash the tires of their delivery vehicle, so that it can be delivered on horseback like God intended.
Whether you end up with the package or the robot is irrelevant. The part that makes it criminal is that you’re denying it to its owner. The fact that they can eventually get it back is also irrelevant.
Is it stealing to jumpstart a car, take it on a joyride, and then abandon it? The owner can get it back there, too.
Good one, General Ludd!
And, if you strap a buggy to that horse, my families late buggy whip business could be revived! Stupid robots took our jobs!
Seriously, who in their right mind thought they could send these things out among humans and not have them be fucked with? Have they met humans?