Food Delivery Robots Mugged for Food

I don’t know why this should be a surprise. The first time I heard of food being delivered by robots, I remember thinking they’d need good luck to have it arrive at a destination.

But the operations of food delivery ventures come with some complications. In the U.S., these efficient machines have been robbed and vandalized, resulting in a potential loss of business for the companies that oversee the robots and forcing restaurants and grocery stores to replace their orders.

Viral videos have surfaced of people kicking and forcefully opening the robots to steal their packages or simply destroying the machines. Serve Robots, an autonomous delivery vehicles supplier in West Hollywood, say they still have a 99.9% rate of successful deliveries despite recent acts of vandalism.

When blocked by people, robots attempt to maneuver around them or politely ask them to move. If the situation escalates or the robot is tampered with, the robots have loud sirens, and incidents are reported.

The violence against these delivery ‘bots may be due to anger about robots taking jobs away from humans and are possibly seen as a good opportunity to get a free meal as the robot will not respond or attack back.