Delivery robots continue to be a nuisance wherever they roam.
As a gaggle of around a half dozen emergency responders attended to a man who seemed to be having some sort of mental health crisis, two of the sidewalk-crawling machinescame face to face with each other, unsure whether to proceed.
“There’s a standoff. Look at this,” said a man who filmed a video of the incident, which took place near the Cherokee Plaza in Hollywood. (Warning: it’s an uncomfortable listen.)
The robots, which appear to be operated by Serve Robotics, wander uncomfortably close to the cluster of cops, firemen, and paramedics, and instead of driving by — or taking an alternate route in the first place — stop in place like awkward rubberneckers. Half a minute passes before one of the robots decides to back out, but the other remains less than a foot away from the action.
“If I went that close, I’m getting arrested,” the man remarked. “If I went right there where that robot is, I am one hundred percent getting arrested.”
“They can go over there, and I can’t!”
The robot doesn’t drive off until the man under distress is wheeled away in a stretcher, some three minutes later. It’s unclear why the bot didn’t try to remove itself from the scene.
The incident the latest example of the machines running into trouble as they navigate city sidewalks. Last month, two delivery robots operated by different companies smashed into glass bus shelters within days of each other in the same city. Others have impeded disabled pedestrians, driven into the path of oncoming trains, and gotten into traffic accidents. One Chicago ward banned the bots from operating in the area after residents overwhelmingly voted to keep them out.
This also isn’t the first bot encounter our cameraman, who runs the X account “Film the Police LA” has had. Last month, he went viral after uploading a video of himself of berating a delivery bot that asked him to push a crosswalk button, providing a source of catharsis for many who have grown weary of the machines’ intrusion into pedestrian spaces.
More on robots: Chinese Humanoid Robot Runs Half Marathon, Beats Fastest Human Time in History
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