GoKawiilSign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Email address Sign Up Thank you!
Deploying delivery robots into the real world inevitably comes with a period of trial and error, but things are getting a little ridiculous.
A new video compilation by the TikTok content farm @BoopMePlz shows a collection of rarely-seen delivery robot fails. While some of them are old hat, like the clip of a Coco Robotics bot getting obliterated by a passing train, others have gotten less attention, like the footage showing a six-wheeled bot from Starship Technologies rampaging through a marching band performance in Tennessee.
Another shows a car, presumably in Los Angeles, rounding a corner directly into a Coco Robotics delivery bot, which is dragged along as the driver refuses to stop. Another rare snippet featuring Coco declares that “the future is here” as a delivery robot sends itself tumbling down a set of concrete stairs.
One clip presumably shows the aftermath of a nasty collision, a Serve Robotics delivery bot limping along with a busted tire like something out of “Wall-E.”
As ridiculous as some of the clips are, they do a good job of highlighting the many safety issues that delivery robots bring into urban environments. The gadgets are disrupting sidewalk traffic, destroying bus stops, and creating major hazards on public roads — all using infrastructure paid for by the public, for the benefit of a few for-profit companies.
While they might not evoke the same widespread disdain as, say, self-driving cars or AI surveillance spires, they nonetheless follow the same logic: turning public spaces into sources of data and revenue for private gain.
More on delivery robots: Delivery Robot Companies in Trouble as Bot Become Targets for Vandalism