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A 78-year-old Philadelphia woman who repeatedly blocked autonomous delivery robots in protest was arrested after allegedly refusing to let an Uber Eats machine pass.
Carolyn Marvin, a retired University of Pennsylvania communications professor, encountered the robot near the 1200 block of Filbert Street in Center City earlier this month while returning home from a flu shot appointment.
Marvin, who told CNN she had spent months deliberately obstructing the machines, stood in her way until a crowd gathered and police were called.
Officers responded to the scene after receiving a report of criminal mischief involving a robot, a Philadelphia police spokesperson said. The Independent.
Marvin allegedly refused repeated orders to move out, prompting them to issue him a citation for disorderly conduct. “I felt like I had more rights than the robot,” Marvin told CNN with a laugh.
However, after his arrest, Marvin discovered an unusual legal problem:
Pennsylvania law actually classifies delivery robots as pedestrians.
Under Pennsylvania Act 106 of 2020, autonomous delivery machines – officially known as personal delivery devices – enjoy many of the same rights and responsibilities as pedestrians under the state vehicle code. This means that motorists must yield to them at pedestrian crossings, but the robots must also yield to actual pedestrians and cyclists.
Marvin insists that her protests are relatively harmless, saying that she only blocks a robot when it is “practical and possible” and she has time to do so.
“I have one life, so I don’t have a lot of time to spend in front of robots,” she says, estimating that she might spend 10 to 15 minutes delaying a machine on its way.
The worst consequence, Marvin says, is that an office worker’s lunch bowl might arrive about 15 minutes late.
But Marvin says his actions are intended to draw attention to bigger concerns, including job losses for delivery workers, sidewalk safety and privacy risks from cameras built into machines.
“I also think I have a right under the First Amendment to protest corporate abuses in public space, in the same public space that robots occupy,” she told CNN.
Marvin said she has previously demonstrated for civil rights, abortion rights and Black Lives Matter, as well as against the Vietnam and Gulf wars. She sees her latest campaign as an extension of that activism.
“This is what we need to do to make sure the government hears the will of the people,” she said.
Marvin also says delivery robots have no place on sidewalks, seeing them as another example of technology encroaching on everyday life.
“We gave the streets over to cars a long time ago, and I don’t think we should give the sidewalks over to machines,” she told CNN.
“Machines in general are encroaching on our lives,” she continued. “Public space is the most visible place where they are encroaching on our lives, but they are moving up the ranks and many people want that to happen.”
Even after her arrest, Marvin isn’t ready to give up her campaign.
When asked if she planned to continue blocking robots, Marvin replied: “Oh yeah. »
The Independent requested comment from Uber Eats.
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