Image courtesy: Tech Crunch
Crossing metropolitan streets crowded with SUV drivers in a rush is difficult for any pedestrian, let alone a robot less than two feet tall. Starship Technologies is saturating college towns with self-driving electric delivery bots that trundle products to your position in a secured storage container. While the safety of human pedestrians in the vicinity of big vehicles with autonomous capabilities is still being questioned, the roles were reversed this time. According to rach,TikTok ipsa’s video, even a few of lights, cameras, radar, ultrasonic sensors, and neural networks weren’t enough to save this robot from being hit by a Ford Escape.
In its defence, the robot appeared to have had the right of way. This film was shot at the University of Kentucky, one of four institutions Starship Technologies announced it will be expanding to this autumn. When you combine foreign robots with students and teachers who have likely been gone from school for more than a year, it seems inevitable that there would be a squabble at some point.
Despite the fact that the delivery bot was able to return onto the pavement despite a broken wheel or two, it is unknown if the car it collided with was damaged. Despite the fact that the delivery bot was able to return onto the pavement despite a broken wheel or two, it is unknown if the car it collided with was damaged. Insurance companies aren’t often easy to deal with, and it’s difficult to believe they’ll be ready to respond when someone collides with a robot. A Frisco, TX lady claimed in September that a Starship robot hit her car at a stoplight, causing $2,600 in damage. According to NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, she discovered Starship had footage of the event but was unable to acquire a copy or gain more replies.
Her insurance company first said she was liable for paying the deductible; however, after contacting Starship Technologies, the robot operators allegedly paid for the repairs. Starship Technologies did not reply to requests for comment on the event or the robot’s current state. Still, things might have been much worse for our robot pal – at Purdue University, one of them was smushed by a garbage truck coming out of an alley.
