Postmates plans rollout of autonomous delivery robots in US Delivery biz Postmates on Tuesday showed off a wheeled robotic box named Serve that should soon start showing up in cities around the US, carrying goods for customers. The autonomous snack bin is expected to show up first in Los Angeles, city government permitting, and in other cities over the course of the next year. "Serve …
Even though you are quite correct, in many other places LA automatically means Los Angeles. Ordering something on the phone one time, the person attempted to confirm my address as "Baton Rouge, Los Angeles?"
um... no.
"Probably that same places that fire their teachers when they give a world geography lesson and mention the Niger River in West Africa... "
Were they pronouncing it wrong? If so, odd considering LA was originally mainly French speaking.
I've always thought it was pronounced Nee-JER, a soft J
So I've got a thing that wanders around a city with a 'puter, a large battery, good optics, and some sort of wireless backhaul. With enough cargo capacity for a nice software defined radio, antenna farm, and power amps. Ohhh, yeah.
Goodbye War Kitteh and DoS Dog! I think I found something a lot more useful.
If I'm really lucky nobody will get hacked off, repurpose one as an IED, and send it back.
@ChrisG,
Good point. It would just not be appropriate to have a cell or other electronic device on your person when you interact with one of these for personal gain. Might suggest a Guy Fawkes mask and hoodie. But a roving personal arms chest is rather tempting.
What I'm thinking of though is the possibility of using these for societal good. I wonder if police tactics against protesters might become better aligned with their claimed TTPs if they have these high viz robots watching them optically and electronically on behalf of the people and press? Something that faithfully monitors their behavior but is rather immune to intimidation and pepper spray?
Surveillance... it can be a two-way street.
@J.G.Harston
First thing I thought was tripping hazard. I recall vividly the time we took the Eurostar to go Snowboarding, so I navigated the London Underground, with my wheelie boardbag. It has reflective stripes down the sides, and a hairy headbanger at the front, but it was amazing how many people managed to trip over it,.... almost completely people using their cellphone while walking.
So this little fella in a busy urban environment, surrounded by distracted pedestrians rushing to get somewhere,.... fun times.
Garry Perez,
Exactly my 1st thought !!!
Dusty Bin has been hiding somewhere working on his CV and now can deliver packages. :)
Delivery by 'Dusty Bin / Postmate' will have to be very cheap to balance out the compulsory 'very expensive Insurance' to cover late/none delivery.
Has it got a self righting mechanism ?
Can't see how it would recover well when it falls over, if for example someone were to give it a shove.
What about all the normal obstacles that people have to deal with - gates, steps, ramps, muddy paths, etc.
It also looks like the sort of thing that Dogs would really like to claim as theirs with a little squirt.
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