At least Lime and Bird have riders you can yell at when they get in your way.
Postmate’s Serve, a robot that delivers, can’t hear you. And given the difficulty of reaching Postmate for a comment on its plan to put delivery robots on our streets, it’s unlikely that its senior management will either. But then there is that handy touch pad on the Server’s head.
Various tech websites in recent days have announced the launch of Serve, an “autonomous delivery vehicle,” which delivers directly to you your lunch or other merchandise that you’ve ordered online. The Servers will roll down city sidewalks and up to your front door. They are said to be capable of delivering up to 50 pounds of merchandise and can travel up to 30 miles on a single electrical charge.
Wired reports that “Postmates will soon begin rolling Serve into its key markets, starting in Los Angeles, where mayor Eric Garcetti has been exceptionally welcoming.” It’s said that Serve will be on the sidewalks next year.
Other websites have said that West Hollywood already is on the Serve list, something WEHOville hasn’t been able to confirm. However, the City of West Hollywood hasn’t been contacted by Postmate, and it’s unclear how welcoming our Mayor John Duran will be given its position on dockless electric scooters. WeHo is one of the more than 550 cities nationwide where Postmate now makes old-fashioned deliveries using human beings in cars, trucks and bikes.
Serve will have an interface that allows those on the sidewalks to figure out what the Servers are doing. There will be lighting in the Serve’s eyes and a light ring sound that warns of a change in direction. Customers can interact with Serve using cameras and a touchscreen on a Server’s lid.
The City Council banned the launch of dockless electric scooter rides in West Hollywood after an outcry from community members who feared they would be run over while walking on the sidewalks. However, it isn’t illegal for one to ride one’s own scooter in the street or to ride a Lime or Bird scooter rented outside the city limits into West Hollywood.
It’s not clear how West Hollywood residents will react to Serve robots, however some Californians reportedly haven’t been kind in their reaction to autonomous vehicles. Jennifer Scarlett, president of the San Francisco SPCA, told Biz Journal that her organization had been using a robot to patrol the sidewalks around its lot, where needles and trash had been found. But then, Scarlett said, “angry residents vandalized the bot, knocking it over and pouring barbecue sauce onto its sensors.”
GEE….I sure hope no one puts their dog poop bags on them as they roll on by with food deliveries………
OMG…if there were cute robots in my neighborhood when i was a teenager… it would be over. that thing would have bullet holes, arrows sticking out of it… someone would steal one of its wheels… it would have alot of bumper sticks stuck to it… and by god someone would find a way to turn it into a bong… someone always finds ways to turn the craziest things into bongs
The YouTube videos of these things being kicked over, carrying passengers, and being hit by cars, bikes, and scooters should be amusing. Fun times in WeHo.
Soon our residential sidestrewtw will have people lanes, dog lanes, bike lanes, amazon and delivery lanes. Where will we got the cars?
“Where will we got the cars?”
Hmmm?
Welcome to the future, folks, whether you like it or not. Scooters, robots, drones, etc.. Anyone else seen “Minority Report,” besides me?
Interesting to watch it all come to fruition. And to watch people complain about it all, like the sky is falling.
I think of this more as a discovery phase, the companies will get a ton of data from doing this. Then that data will be used to make the drones that will take over smarter. You know this is inevitable.
It’s gonna be fun watching them get out of my lobby once I shut the door……also it will be fun watching people hop on them for a ride.
This is beyond stupid. Technology continues to replace workers on the bottom rungs of the compensation system. Isn’t the the arrogance of technology a large reason why trump was able to message to the working class people? It’s time to become 21st Century Luddites and put a clamp on technology displacing labor.
And then there’s the already dangerous game of being a pedestrian in this city. Enough.
Wonderful! What the world has been waiting for to encourage more congestion on our sidewalks in addition to streets and freeways. This hair brained idea evidently came out of “We Like To Smoke Dope and Come Up With Dopey Ideas”. Please send this NOT DOPE idea to where it belongs, unfulfilled dreams.
oh god, no.