If a human courier walked at me and wanted to go through me, I'm allowed to push them away. A robot doesn't have more rights than a person. Not likely to happen to me with a robto where I live though.
this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2026
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What law would I potentially break if I tipped one over?
I've never seen one IRL where I live, they wouldn't make much sense in suburbia, but I suppose I might come across one someday, if they keep multiplying.
Probably property damage. Same as if you stomped a kid's radio controlled car.
What is you just put a cup over its lidar sensor.
Or put a traffic cone in front and behind it? Definitely don't do that though, it's possibly illegal.
You don't have to damage it though... Just gently roll it on it's side for a little nap.
I think the company could still likely chase people who do that for damages if something broke or for lost profit since it would be pretty clear that it was intentionally disabled/intended to stop its function so it would be pretty clear in a civil court that there was tortious intent.
I wouldn't personally recommend doing it on these, they are essentially walking cameras.
To be fair, the delivery robots I've seen (made by Yandex, which is known for bleeding-edge developments in self-driving technology) made good job to be as unobtrusive and predictable as possible, while also avoiding humans in quite a large range.
My only issue with them is that these are camera-equipped devices rolling the streets and likely sending all that footage to their Big Tech daddies. Besides that, they do their job well, reducing the need for hard human labor.
I'm sure the people who were surviving off that hard human labor are thrilled
I’m surprised that those who lost the work aren’t administers or some beneficiary of it. UBI seems to be the way??
If you see one chuck it in the river
This may provide the first actual usecase for SUVs in cities. They seem to be about as tall as a child, so presumably invisible for the suv drivers.
Hopefully the robots will get mowed down when trying to cross the street.
Fuck you botly, I'm going clankertipping
"THAT'S CALLED CLANKTIPPING! HA HA!"
A lot of sidewalks in major cities don't have room for these. Especially if you account for traffic, light, and power poles, street signs, bus and trolley stops, subway and El entrances, sidewalk trees, garbage, trash and recycling bins, sidewalk grates, cellar entries, cracked sidewalks, etc, etc, etc. And suddenly you're being asked to give up one piece of space that's supposedly reserved for you, to yet another 'move fast, break things, get permission later' techbro "innovation" that no one's asked for.
There's no regulation over them, no standards that they have to follow or how to behave, no way for the public to specifically identify a robot when they encounter it in public (like, say, your robot ran into my car or whatever).
I'd only allow them if each robot carried a certain amount of insurance, was registered and had some kind of license plate, had turn signals (I don't know if they do, the ones I saw didn't), had limited operating hours and locations, were forced to move aside for humans, etc - basically make them the absolute lowest priority thing on the streets and sidewalks. Streets, bike lanes, sidewalks, subways, etc, were each built for specific forms of human movement. If techbros want to introduce a new type of system, they should be forced to build their own infrastructure to support it (no idea what that looks like for delivery robots), instead of just blatantly overloading already-stressed public infrastructure.
A lot of sidewalks in major cities don't have room for these. Especially if you account for traffic, light, and power poles, street signs, bus and trolley stops, subway and El entrances, sidewalk trees, garbage, trash and recycling bins, sidewalk grates, cellar entries, cracked sidewalks, etc, etc, etc.
That’s pretty awful because it seems to me they take about the same space as a wheelchair.
Hopefully this forces tech companies to discuss with the government regarding the increase in walking space and reduction of car traffic in inhabited areas.
It would be somewhat ironic if actual side walks were implemented to support these things on those affluent car dependent neighborhoods and people discovered cars should not be the focus when designing roads.
they should be forced to build their own infrastructure to support it (no idea what that looks like for delivery robots)
Tunnels, at least in heavily populated areas. They already make pipes that should be big enough. It might require a slight redesign of the bots so that they can "climb the wall" a short distance to pass each other, and maybe extend/retract some bits depending on whether they're inside or out, but my heart would not exactly bleed over the money spent. And they'd be out of sight, out of mind most of the time for the rest of us.
If they are going to put in tunnels, they may as well just put in a pneumatic tube system so the robots wouldn't be needed.
and that'll be a lot cleaner. I won't be ordering my food from things running in open tunnels of big cities, they'll be smelling of piss within a day
But my food might not arrive hot if all this is in place…
/s
If one of these bumped into me I feel like I'd want to tip it over in response.
I wouldn’t just feel it, it would be on its side.
Welcome to the Resistance. Simple steps like this are the right response.
TBH I think I’m at the rebellious point of do it without it bumping into me. Steal it’s cargo and dump it somewhere.
Saw a video of one of these things at an intersection asking a pedestrian to hit the walk button for it. He just laughed and said nope. I bet a real person could hit the button.
The thing is it it was an overall fair system most people would get along with the machines. But capitalists and ‘leaders’ have started to make us hate it.
These must be pretty haltable tbh. Either by covering the lidar and I am guessing there will be a safety stop button somewhere. What happens then can the be force rebooted?
And how do they cross the road can the be fooled? Are they crossing after a sound occurs or is it a can see them being gps.
It’s gonna take bunches of us rounding them up like sheep and hearding them towards a locked field.
They'll have cameras and gps though. So be careful, the cops might protect it more than humans. Catch it in a faraday cage maybe.
They seem portable enough to lug to a river which is exactly where it would go if one hit me or anyone i was with.
Just don’t leave it there though, the world is already so polluted.
This is just one of many, many pieces of technology that have been just put into public from tech companies whether we like it or now. And they do it because they know there is no regulation, nor will there be anytime soon to reign it in.
"broken-down robots causing obstructions"
It's littering. Call the sanitation department.
No wonder. The roads are not built for these things and nobody expects them there.
Kick the fucking things into the street
I’m not really bothered by these things. I walk around them just like I have to walk around humans and their detritus.
Might not be that easy if you’re disabled, elderly, blind, or just not looking.
Seriously. Already annoyed enough at cyclists coming from behind who refuse to slow down and assume you can hear their stupid high pitch bells (not if you have hearing loss).
Every day Bender seems more and more realistic.