Food delivery robot goes rogue, causes property damage at L.A. home; KTLA5, February 22, 2026

Josh DuBose, KTLA5; Food delivery robot goes rogue, causes property damage at L.A. home

[Kip Currier: This news story highlights the kinds of negative consequences that can occur from delivery robots, also called Personal Delivery Devices (PDDs) in communities. My 2025 book Ethics, Information, and Technology examines the pros and cons of deploying PDDs to courier an array of items, such as a pilot program in Pittsburgh in which robots delivered books from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP).]

[Excerpt]

"“We’ve got the Cocos, the Waymos and they’re coming for us,” Henson said, laughing.  

What concerns Reel, Henson and others is that this was not the first time there have been problems with food delivery robots. In a separate incident, a Coco robot was caught on camera running into an ambulance, while robot from another company was seen knocking over a parked motorcycle.  

Even more problematic was the time one of the autonomous robots came to an abrupt stop in front of man using a mobility scooter.  

“I think the part that worries me is that these companies can come in and dump their technology in our community and there’s no sense of accountability,” Reel said. “It just feels like an accident waiting to happen.”  

The East Hollywood resident said she’s now documenting all the robots in her neighborhood and that after reaching out to the company that runs the Coco robots, she’s going to get reimbursed for her garden, with a company official telling her that internal measures will be taken to ensure incidents like this do not happen again."

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."