10 comments

  • anikan_vader 38 minutes ago
    Arrested for refusing to yield to a motor vehicle on a public sidewalk? Curious to see if they can find any jury in the land that won’t laugh this one out…
    • daeken 33 minutes ago
      No, she was arrested for disobeying police orders. But whether they're lawful orders or not is a different matter; strongly suspect that if this went to trial, she'd have a decent 1st amendment argument, which is why it won't go to trial. (ACAB, but also this is a pretty standard part of civil disobedience -- getting arrested is just part and parcel, for better and worse.)
      • derektank 11 minutes ago
        I don’t know why you think she’d have a 1st amendment case; intentionally obstructing public passages is a crime in PA. Time, use, and manner restrictions are widely understood to be constitutional as long as they are content neutral and do not restrict expression. If she was following behind or in front of the robot with a sign, that would be one thing, but intentionally blocking someone or something almost certainly does not constitute protected speech in itself.
      • zamalek 5 minutes ago
        > But whether they're lawful orders or not is a different matter; strongly suspect that if this went to trial

        Right: you win arguments against cops in court, not on the street.

        Unless you're in your home, and they don't have a warrant.

      • bentobean 30 minutes ago
        ACAB?
        • 15feetOfclay 28 minutes ago
        • tintor 16 minutes ago
          All Cats Are Beautiful
        • peab 27 minutes ago
          "all cops are bad cops" - an idiotic leftist acronym, a remnant from the BLM days
          • margalabargala 23 minutes ago
            That's not actually what it stands for...
          • defrost 25 minutes ago
            ACAB & ACAC both span multiple english speaking countries, predate BLM days by at least three or four decades, and are hardly idiotic in the face of documented abuses of power by rotten apples, coupled with tacit acceptance of the bad ones by their wider fraternity.
          • 15feetOfclay 17 minutes ago
            Interestingly, it isn't strictly "leftist". In fact it was used by both racist and anti-racist skinheads.
  • sammy2255 0 minutes ago
    What is the charge?
  • waltbosz 12 minutes ago
    What happens if you place something on the top of one of these things? I'm imagining a second robot that sits atop and sprays silly sting at pedestrians it detects. Or one with an air horn that goes of randomly. or one that attaches to the side at the bottom and uses a series of spray chalk guns to dot matrix messages into the sidewalk. :p
  • left-struck 36 minutes ago
    The police only helped her cause by arresting her I imagine.
    • jimmaswell 19 minutes ago
      Her "cause" of making everyone's lives worse by delaying food delivery? Why would I ever support this?
      • nickthegreek 10 minutes ago
        The food delivery vehicle was on the pedestrian path where the pedestrian wanted to be. Why didn’t it turn around and go another way? That is what peole do when sidewalks are jammed up by whatever event might be happening. Was she following it around and blocking it from every direction? Making contact in any way? Go back across the street and get on with it.
      • antonvs 3 minutes ago
        You might support it if you were a food delivery worker, or someone else whose jobs are at immediate risk from automation. Or if you had any empathy for those people.
  • smallerize 37 minutes ago
    I would be surprised if these robots were taking many jobs. Aren't they mostly piloted by people?
    • majormajor 27 minutes ago
      Second-hand info, but: I've heard humans only take control when the system flags that they're stuck.
      • snarky-comments 19 minutes ago
        Stuck or blocked by some first amendment disorderly protestor type
    • tintor 14 minutes ago
      Yes, by offshore teleop pilots from low wage countries. They are still taking local jobs.

      Those kinds of robots should never be allowed on sidewalks.

    • wnevets 35 minutes ago
      > Aren't they mostly piloted by people?

      In which country? People normally consider outsourcing to a cheaper country as taking jobs.

  • ai-x 7 minutes ago
    So, she is protesting against People having their food delivered to them?
    • antonvs 5 minutes ago
      FTA:

      > ... she was protesting the use of delivery robots because she believes they are replacing human workers.

  • zer00eyz 15 minutes ago
    Never change Philly... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HitchBOT

    I have to wonder if in the long term this bot is an uber product or a restaurant owned product.

  • sublinear 17 minutes ago
    Is this the new "dog bites man"?
  • 2OEH8eoCRo0 41 minutes ago
    Civil disobedience
    • scun 38 minutes ago
      "disorderly conduct"
  • CurbStomper4 24 minutes ago
    [dead]