I don't mean this as a hot take, but perhaps they should be regarded like electric skateboards and scooters, and throttled e-bikes in California: They go in the street, no ifs ands or buts. This...
I don't mean this as a hot take, but perhaps they should be regarded like electric skateboards and scooters, and throttled e-bikes in California: They go in the street, no ifs ands or buts. This was made a law in California to limit the additional hazard to pedestrians. Pedal-assist and human-powered bikes can exist as "pedestrians" if the city allows them to be on the sidewalk, but must yield to pedestrians according to state law here. Similar to how we only got a three-foot passing law when a high-profile person got hit by a car, we could accommodate these services, and still reap benefits for people living in the cities that are served by them by adding additional bicycle infrastructure that won't be constantly occupied by these devices.
complete yielding to pedestrians should be enshrined in the law for these devices, if for no other reason than to give a safe operational target.
My parents live near the headquarters of one of these start-ups and boy was it annoying when early versions would get arbitrarily stuck in front of their driveway. I don't think the tech is there...
My parents live near the headquarters of one of these start-ups and boy was it annoying when early versions would get arbitrarily stuck in front of their driveway. I don't think the tech is there yet to make these little guys appropriate for sidewalk use. What happens when a person in a wheelchair comes up one of these and it just freezes and waits for them to go around on a sidewalk they are completely blocking? How did this pass ADA approvals?
I think maybe they should have support people watching over them, and it should be easy to call them when there is trouble? Perhaps a prominent phone number on each side of the unit? Although, if...
I think maybe they should have support people watching over them, and it should be easy to call them when there is trouble?
Perhaps a prominent phone number on each side of the unit? Although, if it's stuck, why doesn't an operator find out immediately?
I suppose, but it leaves out other external enforcement options (such as towing in the case of cars blocking a driveway) and immediate need (in the case of the woman in the wheelchair being suck...
I suppose, but it leaves out other external enforcement options (such as towing in the case of cars blocking a driveway) and immediate need (in the case of the woman in the wheelchair being suck in the intersection). I'm making a leap here, but I would be surprised if they didn't have 1-2 people looking out for the entire fleet. How many "temporary issues" would they allow to slide or work themselves out if the alternative is actively managing the fleet? I feel slightly like the old man saying "get off my porch you kids with your weird delivery robots", but if the street has been deemed safe enough for cyclists and skateboards as @knocklessmonster says, why are we giving them access to the sidewalk.
From the article: On the other hand, here's a startup that decided to get out of delivery and go into sales: Tortoise pivots away from robotic delivery toward mobile stores [...] [...] [...]
From the article:
States like Pennsylvania, Virginia, Idaho, Florida and Wisconsin have passed what are considered to be liberal rules permitting robots to operate on sidewalks — prompting pushback from cities like Pittsburgh that fear mishaps.
On the other hand, here's a startup that decided to get out of delivery and go into sales:
Over the next few months, Tortoise will launch up to 30 smart stores, which will function like vending machines placed on top of what used to be Tortoise’s delivery robots, with 17 retailers across the U.S. and one European launch partner. Rather than charging customers on a hardware-as-a-service model, Tortoise is using a take-rate model, wherein it will provide the robot and software for free and take 10% of gross sales.
[...]
Tortoise was underway with a variety of last-mile delivery partnerships with companies like Albertsons, the grocery giant that owns Safeway and Jewel-Osco, when a trend started to emerge. Whenever the robots were parked in front of a store or at a corner, passersby on the street would try to interact with them and even try to purchase goods from them.
[...]
Implementing mobile smart stores is also much easier to pull off from a regulatory standpoint than sidewalk delivery, and it allows Tortoise to enter markets that are unfriendly to sidewalk robots, like New York and Chicago
[...]
One remote operator can monitor up to 16 robots, said Shevelenko, and they only really need to get involved in case of any issues or if the robot needs to move – most retailers leave the robots outside their storefronts, but some have taken them to parks and public spaces, as well. Tortoise also provides joysticks to the businesses to remotely move the bots themselves if they’d prefer.
Hey, they have controls built in. That means that they could be taken for joyrides like the electric scooters as opposed to just blocking the sidewalk in one place.
Hey, they have controls built in. That means that they could be taken for joyrides like the electric scooters as opposed to just blocking the sidewalk in one place.
I don't mean this as a hot take, but perhaps they should be regarded like electric skateboards and scooters, and throttled e-bikes in California: They go in the street, no ifs ands or buts. This was made a law in California to limit the additional hazard to pedestrians. Pedal-assist and human-powered bikes can exist as "pedestrians" if the city allows them to be on the sidewalk, but must yield to pedestrians according to state law here. Similar to how we only got a three-foot passing law when a high-profile person got hit by a car, we could accommodate these services, and still reap benefits for people living in the cities that are served by them by adding additional bicycle infrastructure that won't be constantly occupied by these devices.
complete yielding to pedestrians should be enshrined in the law for these devices, if for no other reason than to give a safe operational target.
My parents live near the headquarters of one of these start-ups and boy was it annoying when early versions would get arbitrarily stuck in front of their driveway. I don't think the tech is there yet to make these little guys appropriate for sidewalk use. What happens when a person in a wheelchair comes up one of these and it just freezes and waits for them to go around on a sidewalk they are completely blocking? How did this pass ADA approvals?
I think maybe they should have support people watching over them, and it should be easy to call them when there is trouble?
Perhaps a prominent phone number on each side of the unit? Although, if it's stuck, why doesn't an operator find out immediately?
I suppose, but it leaves out other external enforcement options (such as towing in the case of cars blocking a driveway) and immediate need (in the case of the woman in the wheelchair being suck in the intersection). I'm making a leap here, but I would be surprised if they didn't have 1-2 people looking out for the entire fleet. How many "temporary issues" would they allow to slide or work themselves out if the alternative is actively managing the fleet? I feel slightly like the old man saying "get off my porch you kids with your weird delivery robots", but if the street has been deemed safe enough for cyclists and skateboards as @knocklessmonster says, why are we giving them access to the sidewalk.
From the article:
On the other hand, here's a startup that decided to get out of delivery and go into sales:
Tortoise pivots away from robotic delivery toward mobile stores
[...]
[...]
[...]
Ah yes, because what we need is to make our cities less walkable by having a small army of 550lb robots blocking all the sidewalks...
Hey, they have controls built in. That means that they could be taken for joyrides like the electric scooters as opposed to just blocking the sidewalk in one place.
Why limit the danger to street crossings when the whole world can be exciting?