The first time John Roberts saw a delivery robot trundling down a Chicago sidewalk, he was impressed. “I actually thought they were kind of neat – it felt futuristic,” he says. But his attitude soured when, soon after, he was out walking with his family and found himself having to dodge another robot. “To us it felt a little off – the fact that we were on the one strip reserved for walking, and we were having to get out of the way,” says Roberts. “I started thinking about what it would be like for us to go for a walk as a family if there were dozens of robots with lights and cameras zipping around.”
The machines – formally known as autonomous urban delivery vehicles – have started to appear on pavements in a number of cities across the US, plus in the UK, Japan, South Korea and Germany, transporting groceries and fast food using cameras, sensors and GPS to navigate. According to the companies operating them, they can reliably identify objects, cross streets safely and help cut traffic and emissions. But local authorities and members of the public in the US and Canada are increasingly less than enthusiastic. Bans have been put in place, and protests launched. San Francisco limited access to less busy parts of the city; Toronto has prohibited them from sidewalks since 2021. In Chicago, robots are now banned from two small areas.
“US cities impose bans on delivery robots as pedestrians complain of being forced off sidewalks.”
Roberts wants them suspended citywide until safety tests are carried out. His petition has around 4,400 signatures. People frequently step into the street to get out of the robots’ way, he says. “There have been reports of collisions and injuries. I saw one a few days ago where somebody had been struck by one of the robots’ safety flags, which is a little ironic. We’ve got reports of robots causing issues with traffic, blocking emergency vehicles because they’re acting erratically at crosswalks.”
Similar concerns have emerged in Glendale, California, where the council is considering a temporary ban. Councillors say the robots appeared without warning, and at first they didn’t even know which company was supplying them. “What triggered the concern and the discussion was a number of factors,” says Coun Ardy Kassakhian. “The increased visibility of the robots in the downtown, and the question about accessibility and pedestrian movement on…”
As the robots multiply on both sides of the Atlantic, the question remains: who should make way – the machines, or the people?