Delivery bots.

Heater.

So when you find this http://abcnews.go.com/US/robot-deliveries-roll-fly-washington-dc/story?id=40168469 asking for help in crossing the road, are you going to;

a) Help it. Thus aiding the profits of some company or other.

b) Steal the goodies inside

c) Take the whole machine

Seems like a cool robot anyway.

GordonMcComb

Sure. Washington D.C. is a great city for a pilotless robot that can carry a significant payload to roam the street. Its developers were clearly on their toes when they thought up this one.

erco

Love the concept. Bots will be messed with, stolen, vandalized, hit by cars & bikers. Losses & lawsuits just waiting to happen. Oh, but terrorists will love them for special delivery and flying under the radar.

Heater.

Can't see that thing making any progress in London. For example.

Back in the day kids would have a giggle spraying the thing technicolor, sticking chewing gum in it's eye, and shoving bricks under it's wheels. Just to see how it coped.

Of course today, with a surveillance camera every 10 yards in London perhaps they would be too nervous to go near it.

Which raises an interesting question:

If someone chooses to send such a bot out into the street. And I decide to do it serious damage or snatch it's deliverables. Am I guilty of anything?

I mean, normally I would expect that if one leaves ones valuables in a public space and someone else takes them then one has no recourse.

erco

Just tie a loooooooong rope to it. That's not illegal. Either tied to a tree/hydrant or simply dragging behind. Then sit back and watch the fun. Video for YouTube, posterity, and all the liability cases to follow.

MikeDYur

I wonder if the six wheel drive resembles the MSL.

xanadu

Their bot reminds me of that NASA robot from Flight of the Navigator. The movie prop was a much better design.



When it comes out I'm using my S3 to deliver Sharpie Markers : )

GordonMcComb

That NASA robot had the right idea. In a controlled environment, these can be quite useful. Hotels, motels, restaurants, hospitals, schools, warehouses, office buildings, nursing homes... the list is endless. But no, these guys want to play Isaac Asimov and build what appears to be a sentient robot that everyone ignores on the street. Yeah, right. Everyone but those who'd be happy to mess with it, steal it, or use it for something we'd rather not have to think about.

Public delivery bots in arbitrary neighborhoods, especially one like Washington D.C where the next street over might be in abject poverty, is nothing but hubris in the guise of "gee, aren't we great what we've done!" It's not even the largest market for them. They're just leaving money on the table, while creating new forms of theft, vandalism, and terrorism.

Heater.

Except we are forgetting the future of law enforcement. If people messing with delivery bots is an issue then other bots will be deployed to protect them:

MikeDYur

That's what you need to deliver with, then you can bring back COD.

EDIT: Pick the pay or spray plan.

msrobots

Heater. wrote: »

Can't see that thing making any progress in London. For example.

Back in the day kids would have a giggle spraying the thing technicolor, sticking chewing gum in it's eye, and shoving bricks under it's wheels. Just to see how it coped.

Of course today, with a surveillance camera every 10 yards in London perhaps they would be too nervous to go near it.

Which raises an interesting question:

If someone chooses to send such a bot out into the street. And I decide to do it serious damage or snatch it's deliverables. Am I guilty of anything?

I mean, normally I would expect that if one leaves ones valuables in a public space and someone else takes them then one has no recourse.

Really?

If you park your car or bicycle at a public train station it is OK for you if somebody grabs it?

Do you loose ownership of things if they are not on your own property? How about renters or even homeless people, can't they own nothing?

quite confused about that interesting question.

Mike

erco

After DC, they should test this bot in New York City, Detroit, and Philadelphia, where Hitchbot met an untimely end.

It might work in Canada, where Hitchbot made out OK.

Heater.

As if on cue, patrol bots are already rolling out: http://fusion.net/story/321329/knightscope-security-robot-uber-parking-lot/

I saw these guys roaming around an Expo in San Jose last week. They did not detect the fact that I had gate crashed the expo without registering or paying!

I was thinking of the ED-209 when I saw them.

erco

That's a really great looking robot. Very tidy and neat in laboratory white. But outdoors to patrol a gritty parking lot, I would paint the whole thing traffic cone orange and put some big thick black rubber bumpers around it for when it gets knocked down and run over, even by accident.