“Off our streets.” Delivery robots are being massacred

There are repeated acts of vandalism against unfortunate robots that do nothing but deliver food to those who asked for it. It’s fashionable, there are those who do it as a joke, and there are those who are simply afraid that delivery robots will steal their jobs from humans. Therefore, “go there to your country”.

When the University of California allowed, in 2020, the Colombian startup Kiwibotcurrently fills the campus of delivery robots, the reception was far from warm.

Although some students and staff seemed to appreciate the robots, many more did not, and devoted themselves to vandalize themimportunate them and tear them down whenever they had the opportunity.

As Kiwibot’s executive director at the time, Felipe Chavezof the first 80,000 deliveries completed by robots on campus, around 1,600 involved vandalism incidents. Keeping in mind that each Kiwibot cost $2,500, it’s easy to see how quickly the damage accumulates.

Six years laterat a time when thousands of other delivery robots have already invaded the streets, the attitude towards delivery robots seems to have changed very little. If anything changed, it was for the worsenote or .

On the weekend, two Uber Eats delivery robotsin Sheffield, in the United Kingdom, were the target of significant acts of vandalism. Images released by show the two robots covered in spray-painted graffiti with the phrase “off our streets” (“off our streets”).

“It’s a shame to see some people ruin something that is for everyoneand ruin a new service for local people,” a spokesperson for , the robot’s manufacturer, told the newspaper. “We have already reported the incidents to South Yorkshire Police and we take this type of criminal damage very seriously.”

During St. Patrick’s Day weekend in Philadelphia, USA, individuals notoriously happy during a night out they kicked, sat on top, simulated sexual acts and vandalized also a delivery robot.

A few days earlier, the same robot appeared in one making its delivery, painted with the phrase “destroy me, please”.

Weeks earlier, in Los Angeles, a man on a delivery robot covered in what appeared to be a dirty diaper. “Today I came across the perfect microcosm of downtown Los Angeles: a high-tech, autonomous delivery robot smeared with a lot of feces“, he wrote.

There is also no shortage of examples of petty aggression: images released in December by show two men in Leeds, United Kingdom, throwing a delivery robot into a bush, while another shows a damaged robot abandoned on a sidewalk in Los Angeles.

As more robots invade city streets across the US and Europe, some people are taking a active role in halting its expansion. According to The Star, critics point to the fear that these robots will cause damage as a possible cause for these acts of vandalism. disappearance of human jobs.

As usual, fear leads to hate — and “off our streets” seems to be the robot version of “go to your land“.