Flip Flop Rider

here's a good rule for the mup. nothing with a motor

rsbob 

If we had pizza-bots, I would start carrying a crowbar for a free lunch.

Iride01 

No, it definitely isn't a Trikke.

It may not be a StreetStrider but it's something that you have to work both arms and legs in that nordic/alpine fashion of cross country skiing when you have to use your poles and arms a lot.

When I first saw the thing and searched to find out what it might be, StreetStrider was the closest thing I found to it.

drlogik 

When one gets confused and makes the wrong move and hurts a cyclist, what then? If you ask me this is an accident waiting to happen. Cool concept though.

veganbikes

We don't need robot vehicles delivering pizza on a bike path. Just throw them off the Congress Ave. Bridge. This whole robot/AI/Driverless thing is getting kind of disgusting. Technology is cool but people want to take jobs from people and take space from cyclists and pedestrians for their goofy mobile e-waste. Maybe if Google and all the other companies working on this e-waste are going to pay a heck of a heap in taxes to fix the roads and public infrastructure, than maybe I could see something or if they only operate on toll roads that would work but beyond that no thanks,

indyfabz

I have 2 pizza places within a 1.5 block radius of my house. One is a half a lock away. Both are independently owned.

J Palmer Cass

So some business person sees an angle to make a buck while pushing it as something beneficial to the public rather than beneficial to themself--you know, all that "it's greener and will cut down on cars" and all that ********. Like they're doing us a favor. And a lot of saps will buy into it.

Troul 

this sums it up.

Joe Bikerider

Maybe two years ago one of these companies came to our city council meeting to request permission to trial such a system. I went to watch. I was appalled at how the council ate it all up. They were so excited that we might be leading edge. I was sitting in the back where I could watch the presenter and his staff. The guy was yammering on about AI while the guy in the back was driving the thing from his phone. He drove it into the chamber and down the aisle to do a couple pirouettes. Meanwhile the senior citizen council members were praising themselves for their forward thinking.

I think kicking it off the bridge into the creek is a good approach. We do have a creek and bridge readily available.

Airfehr

A lot of jobs will be replace by AI in the not to distant future. For the time being I prefer to spend my money with real people for service. Very rarely use the self checkout lanes. Also try to spend my money locally. Several pizza shops here have bicycle delivery. It will be a sad day if that changes to bots.

As for bots in the bike lane. While I like the idea that it may help expand our number of bike lanes, the E-bike fad maybe enough to for the city to improve and expand our current infrastructure. So I'm going with no.

First post.

Outrider1

Bands of ebike desperados looting the robots for the, no, not the pizza...the batteries.

livedarklions

The fun part is going to be figuring out how to screw with the ai to freeze the damn things or, even better, drain their batteries traveling in circles. I'm thinking it might be possible to get two of them to pair up as dance partners.

​​​​​​ When the bike lane is just a part of the road you dump things that slow down the traffic lanes, it will quickly cease to be a bike lane. And why, as a society, should we be encouraging more meal delivery? It's obviously a very wasteful method of distributing food. I'm not saying you should stop having food delivered, but I don't think we should be subsidizing the automation of delivery by providing a special lane for it.

Troul 

Unless the "AI" device is constantly updating & upgrading its own OS on the fly, there will be L33T attack attempts & most will be successful.

livedarklions

I should have been more clear, I'm not advocating hacking. I just mean that the bot is going to have decision rules when it's interacting with the environment--e.g., always yield to pedestrians and bicycles. Most likely, it's going to be perfectly legal to get in front of the thing and either stop or slow to a crawl, which could cause it to divert its path per whatever its passing algorithm is telling it to do. With a bit of trial and error, I would bet a person or persons could come up with a strategy of how to place themselves that just completely stymied the bot's ability to keep moving towards its destination.

My ideal scenario would be to put one bot into the path of the other and isolate them in such a way that they can't figure out how to get past each other.

Troul 

convoy of bots just screams pathway rage

ChamoisDavisJr

Very brave of this company to test their AI Bots in Austin, lol.

Years ago there was a Canadian company that had an AI Bot that was hitchhiking across the US (after successfully hitchhiking across Canada) and got murked as soon as he hit the ghetto in Philly.

I'm sure this will work out wonderfully.

Gyro

Had a small wheel size electric bike blow by me on a MUP the other day. Packages in the side mounted wire baskets. I was doing about 15mph, he had to be well over 20mph. He did call out he was passing before he went by. The MUP is three miles in length, broken in one mile bits by crossroads.
Most of our so called bike paths are nothing more that lines painted on roads, where before there was nothing. Shazam! Instant bike paths.

UniChris

I wonder if suburban bears like pizza

Doug64

My wife and I were riding near my alma mater, and we decided to ride around and check out the campus. It had been a lot of years since I was in some parts of it. Things have changed. These little guys were running up and down the sidewalks delivering food to the dorms. I suspect they might have cameras that would help identify anyone messing with them. Better wear your mask

SurferRosa

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CliffordK

If there is more demand for bike paths, perhaps the cities will put in more bike paths. And, it could convince more people that they actually want bike paths. That can't be a bad thing.

However, I doubt the speed limit of 15 MPH on the Pizza Bots will be forever.

If you buy delivered pizza, you want it hot and fresh, right?

Imagine the next gen of pizza bots that are designed the size of a skateboard... able to whiz in and out of traffic at 100 MPH. Slip right under cars and between the tires. Plot a path to dart across intersections no matter the traffic lights.

bmcer

To be fair, I feel more threatened by the crop of motorists already out there. I have my doubts about any autonomous or semi-autonomous technology, but I suspect it'll be a while before AI is capable of supporting the kind of malice human motorists display when confronted with anything on less than 4 wheels.

UniChris

It's not malice though, the reason for fear is the consequences of too much perfect but impact-ignorant compliance, especially triggering human frustration.

Eg, I once nearly got taken out on a curve by a fellow cyclist who went blindly into my lane to pass a mother hen and long line of training wheel ducklings in his.

People should accommodate family groups of course, it's gaggles of perfectly spaced robots that could ruin a route.

People should get off the couch and walk or ride to get their own pizza.
​

CliffordK

It would be interesting to play with one of these bots to see how it navigates around people, obstacles, cyclists, pedestrians, skateboarders, etc. How does it deal with adverse lighting conditions, busy traffic, etc.

We already know the Uber Robots simply run over the cyclists that get in their way.

Troul 

The name for these new robots could be, "iDrive Distracted" .