Delivery Robot Knocked Over Pedestrian, Company Offered ‘Promo Codes’ to Apologize

An on-campus delivery robot at Arizona State University ran into a university employee after “abruptly changing direction” and caused her to fall over and be injured, according to a police report obtained by 404 Media. After the Starship delivery robot began to drive away, it “abruptly goes into reverse again and heads toward [the victim] again, who is still on the ground,” the report states. In the aftermath of the incident, the company offered to give the victim its insurance information “and promo codes” for use on the service, which is used to deliver takeout food.

The incident, which happened last September, is an example of semi-autonomous delivery robots not just getting lost, causing traffic, or wandering off, but of a direct collision with a person. Another police report obtained by 404 Media involving the theft and safe return of a Starship robot shows that the company initially asked police not to charge the student, but later changed its mind and asked police to arrest him. The student was ultimately charged with a felony. These cases, obtained using public records requests, provide more insight into how incidents with delivery robots are handled by the police and by the company, and comes as Starship operates at 30 universities in the United States.

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