Bill Schackner, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; After food-delivery robots were benched, Pitt tests putting them back on the sidewalks
"Last week, the San Francisco-based company and dining services vendor
Sodexo resumed testing. Earlier, the gizmos were pulled from the
streets after a doctoral student using a wheelchair said one blocked her access to a sidewalk on Forbes Avenue.
Pitt spokesman Kevin Zwick said officials are still hoping to
formally debut the robots this fall. A handful of other universities
nationwide are using the Starship robots...
The 2-foot tall, six-wheeled devices that resemble rolling coolers are
programmed to navigate the campus and can be operated remotely as they
cross streets around campus. The plans have drawn a range of reactions
from those who depend on takeout or find themselves navigating crowded
streets with the bots."
Issues and developments related to ethics, information, and technologies, examined in the ethics and intellectual property graduate courses I teach at the University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information. My Bloomsbury book "Ethics, Information, and Technology" will be published in Summer 2025. Kip Currier, PhD, JD
Showing posts with label Starship Technologies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Starship Technologies. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Food delivery robots from Starship Technologies are coming to Pitt’s Oakland campus; Nextpittsburgh, September 3, 2019
Bill
O'Toole, Nextpittsburgh; Food delivery robots from Starship Technologies are coming
to Pitt’s Oakland campus
"Stakeholders got their
first look at the project last week when the Oakland Planning and Development
Corporation (OPDC)
held a public meeting where Starship gave a presentation
on the project.
The university has confirmed
to us that Starship’s service is due to launch later this fall, but the company
declined to offer further specifics about the project to NEXTpittsburgh.
According to the minutes of the meeting, they plan to begin a
staged rollout in mid-September. The fleet will eventually have 25 autonomous
rovers carting goods (presumably to hungry students) from campus food vendors
such as Forbes Street Market...
The food delivery service
poses obvious practical challenges for the flow of traffic and people
throughout the bustling neighborhood. According to the minutes of the public
meeting, several attendees expressed concerns over the potential for traffic and
bicycle accidents.
“It’ll be interesting to see
how they interface with people there in the public right of ways,” says Georgia
Petropoulos, executive director of the Oakland Business Improvement District, which has
no formal role in the project."
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