I actually rather like the small delivery robots you see trundling around many bigger cities today. They’re little boxes on wheels (I had a similar idea for these back in 2015, just saying), and they have a certain friendly charm about them, avoiding the unsettling quality that many humanoid robots have. They’re somehow endearing, and when I see one stuck or confused, my brain anthropomorphizes them to such a degree that I feel like I should help it. That said, if one of these things blocks an emergency vehicle like an ambulance or fire truck, they should just run the little bastards over.
I bring this up because just recently, a video went viral of one of these delivery robots crossing a street and blocking the path of a fire truck that was quickly driving down the road, lights and sirens glaring and blaring. The delivery bot, while it had the right of way to cross the road, didn’t seem to understand what to do when the fire truck approached, and dithered confusedly in the middle of the road, causing the fire truck to come to a complete stop for about five precious seconds before the robot finally got out of the way.
Here’s the video, in case you missed it:
@kasseyisrich So like…who has the right of way? ???????????? Love seeing the response to this video, LA is full of insane moments like this! Usually, I share wardrobe styling bts and tips so stay tuned for more fashion related content! #jet2holiday #losangeles #fyp @Serve Robotics @LAFD Foundation ????
That little delivery robot, which was made by a company called Serve, genuinely seemed to panic there in front of the fire truck, if you’ll allow me even more anthropomorphization. I know it can’t actually panic, being a robot, but I also know that these things are supposed to have some ability to recognize emergency vehicles and, presumably, get out of the way. Clearly, this one did not.
That got me thinking: there really needs to be a better way to deal with this problem. We’re just getting started with delivery robots like this, and it’s not unreasonable to think that there will be more and more of these around, which means more potential to encounter emergency vehicles, and more opportunities for the robots to screw up and cause potentially life-threatening delays. I’ve been in an ambulance, pretty adjacent to dying; in so many cases, it’s not an exaggeration to say that every second counts.
I don’t think this is a problem we can expect the software in one of these little bot’s silicon brains to solve. There’s just too many variables out there in the real world to guarantee success here. We need a solution that is dumb and simple and basic, something with about the same level of complexity as just running the things over.
But not running them over; that’s not really a viable solution because people paid good money for their McRibs or whatever, and it would be immoral to deprive them of those. I’m kidding! No one gives a shit if someone doesn’t get their burrito when there’s an ambulance or fire truck involved! The reason we can’t just run these over is that the bots are just too big; they’re over two feet tall or so, and there’s too great a risk of the bot getting trapped under the axle of an emergency vehicle and bringing everything to a halt.
No, this is a solution that requires us to go back almost 200 years or so, to the early days of steam locomotives. Even back then, trains wanted to avoid hitting things that wandered onto the tracks, things like cows, so the cowcatcher was invented by Isaac Drips, who fit one to the locomotive John Bull in 1833.
The cowcatcher is that angled assembly of iron on the front there, designed to catch and shunt things like cows away from the front of the train and off the tracks. We need a similar sort of thing on emergency vehicles to deal with wayward delivery bots:
I’m thinking something like what you see above: a curved cowcatcher-like device, made of flexible but strong plastic, that would be mounted to the bumper of ambulances and fire trucks. I’m calling it the Delivery Bot Shunting Beak (DBSB), and it works exactly like you’re probably already imagining:
The emergency vehicle wouldn’t even need to slow down. It just drives on its path, and if a delivery bot is in the way, it gets caught and shunted out of the driving path of the truck. If it’s still upright and undamaged, it should be free to re-orient itself and complete its delivery (the food inside may be a mess, though) or at that point the delivery company can deal with it; it’s not our problem.
Simple! No software to deal with, no complex sensors or electronics, just big curved pieces of plastic that should prove to be quite cheap to install on emergency vehicles.
There must be some fire department out there willing to build a prototype one of these and give it a test, right? Let me know, and maybe we can set this up and shoot an exciting video or something!
“Delivery Bot Shunting Beak” is an inspired turn of phrase, I gotta say.
I believe all Emergency vehicles should have cowcatchers on the front – and they should be used on any and all vehicles/objects/people which are delaying forward motion while sirens are on.
Including Altimas and CRVs.
In the immoral words of Irma Bunt: “Knock him out of the way!”
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2346690682298142
We’re not limited to just Altimas and CR-V’s… Karens drive just about anything.
Especially Jeeps.
I was going to say, I live in upstate NY – put a plow on the front of the truck.
Call Mr. Plow, that’s my name! That name again, it’s Mr. Plow.
Great idea should would great on pedestrians as well. Jk
Just run the clankers over, right?
TikTok is increasingly sucking with the administration takeover to ensure approved viewpoints, but when I finally got the video to play without installing the app the thing actually cleared the way pretty quickly.
Self driving cars and, as pointed out below, Altima drivers, are bigger issues.
Solving tech problems with more tech is not the solutions, simplify: remove the robots from the streets and the sidewalks.
Tech companies are not going to make their tech work for people, it’s easier to make people change so the tech can work.
Companies have been trying to avoid internalizing externalities since companies. And people and governments do it also.
With or without the “cow catcher”, just how certain could one be that a deflected 50 to 100 lb box won’t end up going through the windshield of a car in the opposite direction or pedestrians walking on the sidewalk. There multiple reasons why people don’t just drive over things at 40+ MPH, even fire trucks.
Robolover.
Ballistics must be the answer. If it works for EV batteries, it can work here!!
*foomp* *burritos go flying everywhere*
Mmmmm – Burrito Roadkill!
If you put some tension on the arms of the device, and they hinged at the tip of the beak, you could conceivably press a button that would unhook the end connected to the bumper and yeet the robot far away from you.
A sweep arm like they put on the front of school busses to make sure kids can be seen by the driver when they cross in front of the bus. Give it some velocity and away we go.
I can already see the TV Lawyer commercials when I’m watching my retro antenna shows.. Was your bowl of the local Spaghetti restaurant destroyed on it’s way to you from a fricken city emergency vehicle running over your delivery bot with your food you need or you will die? Oh. Hell .No! Call me now and let’s right this wrong for millions of tax payer dollars! You will have endless spaghetti for life! Jason, you may have just opened a giant can of worms. Funny how spaghetti looks kind of like worms, huh?
If you ate your spaghetti in the shower like normal people, this would never have happened.
Case dismissed.
Touché my friend, touché!!!!
Fire engines are generally built to be able to push a moron’s vehicle away from a fire hydrant, correct? I don’t see some little pizza robot being much of a problem. They usually slow down for intersections anyway so they should be able to smack the robot out of the way safely.
I think it should be something like deployable rotary saw blades battle bot style. That will make quick work of ’em. No harm to the vehicle.
You don’t want to slice, you want to throw. Therefore I propose more of a circular hammer, as demonstrated upon the defendant Slam Job by the august Mr. Nightmare, Esq:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJYbKqZNPGo
No. An object does NOT have the right of way when it comes to delaying lifesaving services to anyone who needs them.
Unless the person in distress is a billionaire. In that case, let them burn / choke / bleed. If they spent their money on something other than a 24hr medical attendant then they made their choices.
Wow
In a lot of cases those 24hr medical attendants tend to cause as many problems as they solve for billionaires. The court physician wants to keep that job like any of the other yes-men/women in the realm, so to speak.
re: Delivery Bot Shunting Beak (DBSB)
Yes, make it so. Perhaps do it in metal instead of plastic so it can remove confused Altima drivers who tried to make it across the intersection before the emergency vehicle got there.
The delivery bots are intentionally designed for you to anthropomorphize them, which is why they all have those two big round forward running lights made to look as much like cartoon eyes as possible.
Boy, that picture of the cow catcher. Looks like a blade to separate a cow from its hoofs. As far as the fire truck, you could put an electromagnetic pulse generator on the bumper and fry those robots. And other cars in the vicinity. Eh, bring back points and condensers!
Perhaps it was a steak catcher, when you get to the station, go see what “nature” has provided on the front of the train.
I wonder how hot the smokebox (the very front of the boiler where the hot gases travel before exhaust out the chimney) got, given its distance from the firebox.
May not be enough to grill your steak but it’ll preheat it pretty good!
Just enough to get you into the food temp danger zone, which you probably already were since whatever it is you’ve collected has not been properly taken care of. Just another way to die on the Oregon Trail Train.
Jason, you just made the list. – Skynet.
Retired fireman here. I remember doing some slalom driving through a construction zone around 4 foot cones in our ladder truck. Lights a ripping, sirens a blaring and how I love that air horn! (This is why I am half deaf, the other half got toasted at an AC/DC concert.) I got back from the fire call, all proud of myself with my expert volunteer fireman driving skills. Just then the city mayor stops by, walks over to the front of the ladder truck and pulls out a 4 foot cone. I just hung my head.
My wife and I had very little hearing for a couple of weeks after seeing AC/DC. It was absolutely worth it.
OMG – For Those About to Rock – the cannons inside of the old Richfield Coliseum. I thought for sure the roof was coming down.
Never went there, but once lived down the road in Hudson.
I had a fire command vehicle once. It looked like a red UPS truck. It was very cheap 1978 with 25,000 miles for $5,000. It had the air horn. Sounded like the Queen Mary docking. It was so much fun blowing that when other drivers cut me off. The other thing I noticed was wherever I went, no matter how slow I was going, I always had a line of cars following me.
“[I]f a delivery bot is in the way, it gets caught and shunted out of the driving path of the truck.”
One likes to think it’d be more like the poor hapless 1966 Mazda Bongo that gets spun around multiple times during the pursuit of the Nightrider in his 1972 Holden Monaro in Mad Max, you know, the acclaimed 1979 Australian cinéma-vérité documentary:
https://youtu.be/oh2MX0EftaU?si=HYyHnGh30uUWP4Cp
My main worry would be the bot being hit so hard that it becomes a projectile in a densely populated setting.
Don’t worry, a passing Chinese EV could drive by while ejecting its flaming battery pack, and knock the ‘bot back on course…
Generally, predictability is the most important thing, so it should be programmed to keep going once in the path, that way emergency personnel can maneuver around it if possible. Another thing is to maybe have it withdraw to the previous curb if that is closer. Stopping and jogging back and forth trying to decide which way to go is the worst option, that kind of behavior is a big reason why squirrel carcasses litter the roads.
How about this for predictability:
Everything in the f’n world other than your door dash burrito > your door dash burrito.
Plug that into everyone’s algorithm.
That’s great, but these stupid things exist, so unless they’re going to be outlawed, which isn’t likely considering that companies own the lawmakers and demand is driven by people who are increasingly being squeezed for time, we need a solution that works with the acceptance of these things existing.
“We had a deal!”
-George Costanza
Thinking back to my rural upbringing where half the people had deer whistles attached to the bumpers to their going to town Buicks, what is the emergency vehicles had device (other than the sirens, hold on, I’m getting there… ) that emitted an short distance and focused electronic signal that over rides or communicates with the bots programmed routines and told them to stop and get out of the way.
A decent idea, except most smaller or rural fire debts. have very small budgets, especially the volunteer ones. I wonder about the cost related to a solution such as you propose.
Those places probably won’t have delivery bots due to being too spread out.
right.
I am easy commute distance to Boston. There’s a commuter rail station less than 1/4 mile from my door. We have a volunteer fire department with a couple of full-time firefighters.
If they even paused for a second to avoid a delivery robot on their way to a house fire, my home insurance would sue them into misery.
In rural Alabama here. Volunteer FD is a mile away, but very inadequate equipment. But the paid fire depts are willing to travel, sometimes 30-40 miles to help out. Bless those guys.
Our fire department is very well-funded, as is every town department. I could lease any new car (non-exotic) for what I pay monthly in property taxes, and most households here do not have children in the school system.
Mutual Aid is a wonderful system.
Lol, have ChatGPT explain qualified immunity and the public duty doctrine to you (I’m sure your insurer already understands them).
I was talking about the owners of the burrito bot.
I’d love to someone can use a raspberry Pi, a Flipper and duct tape to solve this issue.
Off my topic, while staying on topic, the robot delivery vehicles here in Beijing are quite big, and have red brake calipers, which is neat. I’d estimate they are about 1/4 the size of a regular car, and in my area are absolutely everywhere.
Well, the robot delivery company would be required to supply them gratis to all possible responding agencies in their area of service.
Emergency vehicles have sirens, cars are required to have horns, and drivers are obligated to listen for these warning sounds. Do any autonomous vehicles or autopilot systems have any awareness of these alerts? Did this robot hear the siren of the approaching firetruck?? Does it have microphones (two for spatial awareness)??? It’s a fundamental oversight if they don’t. Elon says cameras only.
As someone living in semi-rural Western PA – deer central, I approve this message.
25 years ago a coworker drove a brush painted ’73 or so Ford F-100. Others laughed, I said he’s smarter than all of us. He just DGAF. See a deer or other critter in the road? Hit it, no harm no foul. What is a deer gonna do to a ’73 F-100 with an I6 and a manual?
I figured his wife either drove a new E-class Mercedes or a 1980 Olds Cutlass. There is no middle ground here people.
That’s right, free venison for the freezer. (Though, now with chronic wasting disease being rampant, not such a good idea.)
This truck looked like one that even Uncle Jesse would put out to pasture.
True about the CWD. I don’t hunt but used to get venison from coworkers who did. It’s not free if you can’t butcher it yourself. I have had 2 roadkills (mine) processed and it is not cheap.
I agree, as braking for a deer totaled my 78 F-150. I was towing a boat, and the whole think jackknifed when I slammed on the brakes for Bambi. Further explanation – there was a small herd of deer looking like they were going to cross the road,so I was slowing down with the brakes, then at the last second Bambi hopped onto the road and I just instinctively pressed the pedal even harder.
Let’s hope the DBSB isn’t deployed at the border!
Some rual fire departments have bull bars on their ambulances given the speed and weight of an ambulance along with the material those bots are made of I could see it breaking the box open and just going over it but hard to say. I’ve seen a 1 ton ram drive over a car accidentally with no issues to the truck that might also work. You can bet the firefighters and paramedics are figuring out how to distroy these things without damageing their equipment. It’s the kind of thing they live for. Especially once recuse squad guys involved.
Rescue lieutenant here, can confirm.
Are you the squad guy that can hotwire and run any equipment. I always laughed showing up on scene when there was a guy like that around and a Capt. that knew it. Construction sites started moving in the middle of the night.
There were two ‘ambulance on the way to the hospital’ accidents in the news last month.
As terrible as it is, I can’t help but laugh. In one of the incidents, the investigator on the way to the ambulance accident got into an accident on the way to the scene.
Ouch, I was a volunteer as a teenager and young adult in well funded county with professionals. It got kinda funny because the county fire department would buy equipment and each volunteer station in theory could buy equipment depending on how well funded they were. There were couple a tiller trucks that had two drivers that the county had bought. The amount of times they wrecked it the cops showed up looked at it and went it’s the civilian drivers fault because there is no way they could figure out if the driver or the tiller driver in the rear was at fault. A few times we were fully staffed volunteer and passed the accident of the fancy tiller truck with all the paid guys in it they weren’t too happy when we were first on scene and had to mop up.
It’s lucky I was not piloting that fire truck.
That little piece of rolling shit would have been in about 2,000 pieces. Really.
Probably would have backed the fire truck up a bit to be sure to get a good running start.
You should have seen the shit my old man and his other cop friends destroyed with their cars and trucks back in the day. They thought nothing about totaling a vehicle to get the job done.
America. What a fucking mess. YMMV
Seconded. With extreme prejudice. But I like the idea of giant cowcatcher things on the front of emergency vehicles – plow EVERYTHING out of the way.
I’m all for “robot tipping” to be the latest fad.
One of my Dad’s cohorts destroyed a sheriff’s chopper back in 1976 when he came on the scene too hot and obliterated the tiny 2 seat chopper. God I wish I had a photo to share.
Yikes! Assume you mean that the driver of an emergency vehicle hit the chopper, not that the *chopper* came in hot and hit something?
Over eager dept. trainee destroyed the chopper.
He did not last too much longer after that though.
That would tend to leave a mark on one’s career.
And the chopper…
Probably the fire truck too!
But it will buff right out.
Robot tipping is an antifa tactic.
Being anti-fascist is now a terrorist act.
You may already be on your way to Guantanamo Bay for posting that (or even thinking it).
Dwight Eisenhower has always been my favorite anti-fascist.