San Francisco mulling ban on sidewalk delivery robots

San Francisco has been paving the way for delivery robots, by hosting trials by both Starship Technologies and Marble in recent months – but now the City by the Bay could be calling time on the sidewalk strollers. Norman Yee, a member of the San Francisco Board of Governors, yesterday (16 May) proposed legislation that would exclude autonomous delivery robots from city’s sidewalks on the grounds that they could present a threat to public safety.

“Our streets and our sidewalks are made for people, not robots,” Yee told local media. “This is consistent with how we operate in the city, where we don’t allow bikes or skateboards on sidewalks.”

Both Marble (which has been trialling a food delivery service with Yelp’s Eat24) and Starship have stressed that they have a strong commitment to safety. Starship added that it would “like to engage with the city to discuss the safe operation of delivery robots that benefit local businesses and residents.”