It's Sarah Conner's Fault.

[BIAD]

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being
watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own...

...Slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us.

17th November 2022.

Trial of food delivery robots begins in Cambridge

'A second trial of food delivery robots has begun in a county after a council gave it the go-ahead.
Starship Technologies will run the scheme in Cambridge on behalf of Cambridgeshire County Council,
despite some green access campaigners objecting.


Please Note: Not a scene from 'The Terminator'.

The company began robot deliveries in the village of Cambourne in May.
County councillor Alex Beckett said the robots will help people "who struggle to leave their houses to
go shopping"...'

BBC Source1:

2nd December 2022.

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:

16th December 2022.

Cambridge delivery robot grateful for snow rescue

'A delivery robot that got stuck in the snow has thanked the man who put it back on the right track.
Graham Smith came across the robot struggling to mount an icy kerb in Cherry Hinton, Cambridge, on Monday.


Please Note: Not a scene from 'The Empire Strikes Back'.

Posting a photo on Facebook, he said he was concerned about the plight of the "poor little mite", which said
"thank you" after he helped it up the kerb. Starship Technologies, which run the robots, said they were designed
to run at temperatures as low as -20C (-4F).

Heavy snow fell across the city on Sunday night and by Monday it was blanketed in white.
A photo taken late on Sunday shows several of them happily trundling along a snowy pavement in Cambridge.
However, the Cherry Hinton bot hit a bit of bother on its journey the following day.

Mr Smith, who was out walking in Chequers Close, spotted it having trouble and took a photograph.
On his Facebook post he wrote: "Saw this poor little mite trying to negotiate a high, slippery kerb in Chequers Close
earlier today, wheels spinning like crazy, we gave it a push onto the path, it very politely thanked us and carried
on its way.

"Should it have been let out on its own in these weather conditions? It didn't even have a scarf."
He said the robot "looked a little lost" as it came across the road and then became stuck on the snow and ice trying
to mount the kerb. "I lifted its back end up to help it on, and it shunted backwards and forwards a bit, and then said
'thank you very much' before heading away."

A Starship Technologies spokesman said: "Our little helpers are busy delivering in the run up to Christmas, and a
light dusting of snow won't stop them. "They're designed to deliver in a range of different weather conditions, an
although temperatures in the UK have fallen these past few days, the robot's batteries are designed to operate at
-20C."...'

BBC Source3:

The lil' buggers have come a long way since 2020.

Milton Keynes delivery robot takes plunge into canal

'A delivery robot had to be rescued when it veered into a canal. The machine, one of many which deliver
take-aways and groceries in Milton Keynes, went into water near New Bradwell on 28 July.


Please Note: Not a scene from 'We Dive At Dawn'.

Bex Morgan said she had been walking her dog when the "robot just drove straight into the canal".
Starship Technologies, which developed and runs the robots, said anyone who spots one of its machines
"swimming" should get in touch.

The robots are a regular sight in Milton Keynes and use 10 cameras, ultrasound, radar and GPS to travel
along pavements and cross streets to make their deliveries. Ms Morgan posted on Facebook how she
witnessed the robot lose its way and plunge into the canal.
She said Starship Technologies had "gone to fish it out"...'

BBC Source4:

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

Just waiting for someone like me to run across one with a case of the munchies. I would abscond with it, remove gps, eat the munchies and re-program it to be my pet robot. You'd see my playing fetch with it, stoned as hell and laughing my ass off! 

[EndtheMadnessNow]

What in star trooper bot hell is going on over there? LOL. Also, get vibes of I, Robot.

I was obliged to run a quick wiki check...



Ah isn't that cute. (You may not get the 'Beaver' bot sticker)

Starship Technologies


Reminds of this story from last year...

Russia's Yandex driverless robots to deliver food at U.S. colleges with GrubHub

How many @UMich faculty, staff & students, and Ann Arbor residents were aware that Russian robots have been poking around town?



You sit outside the office on a work call because it's a nice warm sunny day. Suddenly, you notice a robot idling nearby at shin level. Is it just waiting for someone to pick up a salad?

Should you lower your voice?

[BIAD]

Just waiting for someone like me to run across one with a case of the munchies. I would abscond with it, remove gps, eat the munchies and re-program it to be my pet robot. You'd see my playing fetch with it, stoned as hell and laughing my ass off! 

What GeauxHomeLittleD will be dreaming tonight!

[Snarl]

Just waiting for someone like me to run across one with a case of the munchies. I would abscond with it, remove gps, eat the munchies and re-program it to be my pet robot. You'd see my playing fetch with it, stoned as hell and laughing my ass off! 

What GeauxHomeLittleD will be dreaming tonight!

Beat me to it!!

[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.

.

[727Sky]

In one of our restaurants we have food delivery robots. They are about 4.5 foot tall and 2 foot wide. They have 6 tray slots where food can be placed for delivery at the different tables. Robot arrives and waiter removes the food and places the dishes on the table.  As busy as the restaurant is the robots do a good job of avoiding the wait staff and the patrons IMO.

[BIAD]

In reality, the whole concept of automated delivery in this fashion is a difficult situation to triage.
We can ignore the usual promotional aspect that the media tend to lean on when such articles are offered
and rationally look to see if having 'robots' -a loose term in this case, can be integrated into the well-developed
and multi-intricate social system we already have.

Delivery of paid-for goods demands understanding the positive and negative variables that a machine cannot
-to date, comprehend in its manner of calculating their goals. We can brush past the moral aspect of failure
and consequences to perform an act and simply move on to what Ninurta was suggesting.
Acceptance and value.

Humans will always take time to adjust to a new 'invader' to a system. It's fine when the manufacturer offers
well-designed imagery of 'nice' middle-class people enjoying fine weather and plucking a coffee from a polite
box on wheels. But reality rarely works in this manner and apart from the obvious obstacles of terrain, human
-favouring stairs and larger speeding vehicles, the human themselves will always endeavour to hamper the
affirmation of such devices.

There's always someone who'll push one of these things into a river for a lark, there's always someone who'll
draw male genitalia on the lid of a passing robot and I'm sure there's someone out there right now with the
means to control the direction of these little trundling carriers for their own ends. Disregarding the shotgun
damage certain Rogue Nation members would dispense just for the giggles, it'll become regular to see a
delivery-robot with a wheel missing or a dulled aerial-light because of the simple aspect of support costs.
(See New York subway trains for example)

And that is the real feature to consider here when introducing a new product into an already established
system. The price-tag of having machines deliver goods will be initially ruinous to the arrangement we
currently have.

Jobs lost, social and legal changes to cater for a different vehicle on pedestrian passages, effects on the laws
in different countries and the repercussions of accidents, even the idea that the quantity of the cargo may not
be worth a comprehensive price to have them perform their tasks. In today's Green-Is-Best paradigm, will a
narrative be offered to show the benefits of creating such mechanical assisants set against the alleged
ramifications of what we currently have.

It would also be interesting to know who will foot the bill for such an upkeep and the effect of such a payment
if it is pushed to be absorbed into the public psyche. But sadly, these questions will fall at the roadside, the
article is merely a funded piece of 'media-nudging' and is no different from a different brand of soda entering
the marketplace.

The truth is that when the retail-outlet that bought into the enterprise realise that the Beep-Boop they fished
out of the river with its lid torn-off and a large penis scrawled on its side has failed to complete its task to their
customer, then full price will become apparent... apparent to those who wanted it in the first place.

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

The truth is that when the retail-outlet that bought into the enterprise realise that the Beep-Boop they fished
out of the river with its lid torn-off and a large penis scrawled on its side has failed to complete its task to their
customer, then full price will become apparent... apparent to those who wanted it in the first place.

Often in the rush to embrace the "technology of the future" many get stuck on what is possible when their focus should really be what is practical. Much the same could be said for a majority what "science" offers these days- more about what they "can" do instead of whether or not they "should" do.