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posted by martyb on Tuesday April 18 2017, @06:36AM   Printer-friendly
from the unintended-consequences dept.

Autonomous delivery robots, once the exclusive purview of 1980s sci-fi movies, are coming to a city near you, with promises of reduced labor costs, increased efficiency and the reduction of cars.

But as robot fleets proliferate – Starship robots perform food deliveries for DoorDash and Postmates in Redwood City, California, and Washington DC, while Marble robots will begin making deliveries for Yelp Eat24 in San Francisco on Wednesday – the question none of these companies seems to want to answer is this: are these the sidewalks that we actually want?

Sidewalk-traversing robots are one of several possible solutions to the pesky problem of “last-mile” logistics. Venture capitalists have poured millions into startups employing an army of independent contractors to provide instant gratification to urbanites. But the humans in this equation remain a significant cost, and innovators are looking to obviate them with automated solutions.

Amazon, UPS and Google are all working on an airborne method, which certainly makes for splashy PR stunts. But in cities, ground-based delivery services are a more practical solution.

Somehow the prospect evokes Jawas lurking in the dark, ready to pounce on unsuspecting robots.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 18 2017, @08:40PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 18 2017, @08:40PM (#496004)

    They walk quite well on two legs, can drive vehicles with full autonomy, have excellent communication skills and dynamic crisis avoidance systems.

    Humans!

    With the modern day plague of technology I think this quote is more applicable than ever: "Our technological abilities are not apparent because we have chosen not to employ them in our daily lives. We believe that when you create a machine to do the work of a man, you take something away from the man."

    While I believe some automation is great we should be careful about taking it too far. So much of our automated manufacturing goes into disposable products or stuff designed to fail, I would really like humanity as a whole to start valuing true efficiency and not just economic efficiency that shaves some percentages off the bottom line.