Carolyn Marvin blocked a food delivery robot. It was a stand for humanity
Her tory has gone viral and turned her into a bit of a folk hero simply because she placed her rights above those of a robot and refused to back down.
It’s ironic that a fight over our future recently came down to a standoff between a college professor and some takeout food.
But that’s what happened last month after Carolyn Marvin deliberately stood in front of a food delivery robot on a sidewalk in Center City, blocking its path. She didn’t leave until law enforcement put her in handcuffs and took her away.
The fact that a respected University of Pennsylvania professor emerita wound up in police custody after squaring off against a plastic cooler on wheels is a fitting metaphor for us and the looming artificial intelligence tsunami.
Marvin’s story has since gone viral and turned her into a bit of a folk hero simply because she placed her rights above those of a robot and refused to back down. When I talked to her about what happened, she was defiant saying, “Do we really want to surrender the sidewalks to the robots instead of human beings?”
Oh, hell no.
Center City sidewalks are crowded enough without our having to jostle for space with 150-pound refrigerators on wheels.
Food delivery robots began operating in Philadelphia in March. More are on the way. If you’re not concerned, you may want to rethink that. They may be cute, but they can cause mayhem.
“Do we really want to surrender the sidewalks to the robots instead of human beings?”
Video taken in May shows one entering a crosswalk in Center City as a truck makes a turn and hits it. That same month, a 32-year-old fell off his bicycle after one got in his way in Jersey City, N.J.
Pedestrians are the most vulnerable. An Uber autonomous delivery bot bumped into a pedestrian from behind as she stood at 15th and Locust streets. Li Gordon-Washington, 25, wasn’t seriously injured. But what if it had been someone with a physical disability? People using walkers and canes have a hard enough time navigating tight, uneven pathways without also having to dodge delivery pods on wheels.
That’s why Marvin’s small but mighty act of defiance resonates. The stand that she took on a public sidewalk on Oct. 14 wasn’t just against personal delivery devices but also for all of us.
It happened on Filbert Street near 12th Street, across from the Reading Terminal. As Marvin refused to let the delivery pod pass, passersby gathered to watch.
Some didn’t approve.
Before long, several members of the Philadelphia Police showed up and asked her what she was doing. “I explained that I was exercising my First Amendment right to protest corporate abuses in the same public space that the robots were occupying,” Marvin recalled. “They asked me to move. I said, ‘No, why?’”
Marvin had gotten a flu shot that day. She had in her hands a jar of enchilada sauce and some chicken biryani. Never in her wildest dreams did Marvin think that she’d wind up in handcuffs and in the back of a police cruiser. But that’s what happened.
People should always come first. Pedestrians before robots. Human rights before those of automation. Besides, autonomous food delivery robots take jobs from poor people.
People should always come first. Pedestrians before robots.
What’s next — robots babysitting our kids? Serving tables in restaurants? I’m not for just letting life as we know it disappear as AI takes over. That doesn’t sit right with me.
Same with Marvin, who had this to say about food delivery bots, “I’d like to see them banned.”
That’s what some cities already have done — including Jackson, Wyo. and Toronto. San Francisco has put restrictions on them.
Closer to home, Councilmember Jeffery Young has introduced a series of regulations on food delivery companies that include a proposed $1,000 surcharge on each delivery by autonomous delivery robots. Councilmember Jim Harrity wants to tax them; State Rep. Ben Waxman would like to limit where they can operate.
As government officials grapple with how best to regulate them, we can push back by ordering takeout from businesses that still employ human beings as delivery people. Or — gasp — we can even go out and pick up our own food and forego the convenience of having it brought to our front door.
Marvin wants the 2020 designation of so-called personal delivery devices in Pennsylvania as “pedestrians” repealed. That means they would have to yield to us.
After all, technology is supposed to make our lives easier — not edge us out of the way.
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In contrast to news reporters, who operate within an independent, nonpartisan framework, columnists are charged with including their perspectives, opinions, and viewpoints when presenting their reporting. Inquirer columnists include Jenice Armstrong, Will Bunch, Luis F. Carrasco, Paul Davies, Daniel Pearson, Trudy Rubin, and Sabrina Vourvoulias.
