{"id":5520,"date":"2025-09-27T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/delivery-robot-torments-disabled-man\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T16:00:00","slug":"delivery-robot-torments-disabled-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/delivery-robot-torments-disabled-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Delivery Robot Torments Disabled Man"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A man with cerebral palsy who uses a mobility scooter to travel experienced a blood-boiling episode when he kept getting cut off \u2014 by a robot.<\/p>\n

In a video<\/a> that\u2019s gone viral on social media, Mark Chaney repeatedly attempts to drive his scooter around a sluggish delivery bot operated by a startup called Swerve Robotics as it randomly stops and occupies half a sidewalk in West Hollywood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even more strangely, the clanker courier \u2014 like certain maniac drivers on a highway \u2014 seemed to get swept into an episode of road rage.<\/p>\n

When Chaney tries to pass, the bot swerves directly into his path, even brake checking him a few times. Before the video ends, it cuts him off, continues driving for half a second, then slams the brakes again. It happened so quickly that Chaney ends up rear-ending the machine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way that it moved just seemed really intentional,\u201d Chaney, a disability advocate, told the Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a>. \u201cEverywhere that I moved, it blocks, and then it literally went across the sidewalk to cut me off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chaney\u2019s encounter sums up the frustrations that pedestrians \u2014 and sometimes motorists \u2014 experience with the autonomous robots that have taken over college campuses and cities across the US<\/a>, including Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t let their small stature fool you. While most of the time they\u2019re more of a mild nuisance or a source of bemusement<\/a> than a physical threat, they can still hurt people and cause accidents. Last year, a woman suffered a bad fall after she was struck by a robot from Starship<\/a>, one of the leading delivery bot startups, that suddenly reversed into her path \u2014 and then backed into<\/strong> her again <\/em>before fleeing the scene of the crime. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, they\u2019ve also traded paint with and damaged cars<\/a>. One bumbled into the path of and collided with a Waymo robotaxi<\/a>, in a rare instance of autonomous vehicle on autonomous vehicle violence. Another plowed through a crime scene<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a statement addressing this latest incident, Serve said its robots are designed to safely navigate around mobility devices and people with disabilities. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe regret when we do not live up to that,\u201d it said, per the LA Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter examining this incident, we learned that our safety system designed to predict pedestrians\u2019 intentions and yield right of way instead caused the robot to impede their way,\u201d Serve explained. \u201cWithin moments, the robot came to a full stop in response to sensing a pedestrian in close proximity, which is considered its fail-safe state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chaney told the LA Times <\/em>that he asked Serve to create an accessibility council to address these issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is really important for the future of AI and the disability landscape,\u201d he added. \u201cThis presents an opportunity to really tackle a problem head on, make some positive change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since being uploaded two weeks ago, Chaney\u2019s video has racked up some 30 million views on TikTok and Instagram, bringing an outpouring of support and some good humored-jokes that highlight the absurdity of the encounter. But weirdly, there\u2019s been some vitriol, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of online hate, which is to be expected when you go viral,\u201d Chaney told the LA Times<\/em>. \u201cBut, you know, the death threats are not great.\u201d<\/p>\n

His critics \u2014 if you can call them that \u2014 accuse him of staging the incident for money and attention, like one video comment with more than 1,600 likes that asserts Chaney\u2019s \u201cin the wrong here and maybe looking for a payout,\u201d per the newspaper.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t do this to sue someone,\u201d Chaney said. \u201cI just wanted to get from one place to another on a public space, safely and unimpeded.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on robots:<\/strong> Amazon Testing Humanoid Robots to Ride in Vans, Hand-Deliver Packages<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The post Delivery Robot Torments Disabled Man<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A man with cerebral palsy who uses a mobility scooter to travel experienced a blood-boiling episode when he kept getting cut off \u2014 by a robot. In a video that\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,3616,2700,3845],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","category-drones","category-robotics","category-robots-and-machines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}