It's Sarah Conner's Fault.

[Ninurta]

Cambridge delivery robots form orderly queue at traffic lights

'A photo of delivery robots patiently queuing at a pedestrian crossing has prompted dozens of comments
from people on Facebook. The Starship Technologies robots were introduced in Cambridge this month.


Please Note: Not a scene from 'Silent Running'.

Cyclist Naomi Davies spotted the queue of seven in Coleridge Road on Tuesday and said they waited
through three changes of lights before one crossed. Starship said robots were not "shy" about asking
for help, but in a very "English" way, were "happy to queue".

Ms Davies had stopped on the corner of Coleridge Road and Davy Road at about 19:30 GMT and watched
the robots as they sat at the crossing. "I thought the first one was going to go when the lights changed but
it just started manoeuvring and shuffled about a bit and then stopped," she said.

"At one point a dog came by and one robot sort of lurched around the dog and then seemed to get stuck."..'

BBC Source2:

I read your post with interest. I thought, at first, that if I saw any of them around here, I'd just take them right out. I have coverage of a section of road leading to my house that is between 100 and 150 yards distant, and at that distance my trusty sniper rifle can take out things as small as a US quarter, so these would be a piece of cake, and distributed all along the road, in bitty pieces.

Then I realized that, with their rudimentary locomotion systems, they'd never be able to make it up to my house, and then I relented. So long as they refrain from trying to cross the drawbridge, they'll be safe from me.

Then I rethought it again. If I see any of them carrying guns, as is apparently becoming or about to become habit in the US, they'll get toasted between 130 and 140 yards away, regardless of where they try to go. The gummint can send a street sweeper out to gather them up.

"Silent Running" was the bomb. It was my intro to "helper" robots, before they even were. Bruce Dern inspired me to make friends with robots in that movie...

... unless they carry guns. Fuck that. if they carry guns towards me, they are done for. But if they just do agricultural crap like the Silent Running bots, that's cool. I could use an agricultural bot or two.

.