A Starship delivery robot, which are used on campuses across the US, suddenly changed direction and struck a woman crossing the sidewalk.
Bot Belligerence
Beware those little delivery robots you see tooling around college campuses. They may be small, but they can still knock you on your ass.
As 404 Media reports, a woman working at Arizona State University learned this the hard way, after one of these things apparently went haywire and struck her last September, injuring her in the process.
According to a police report 404 obtained via public record request, the employee was waiting for the Starship robot to drive past her so she could cross the sidewalk near a parking garage. After it did, she started walking. But all of a sudden, the robot « abruptly » went into reverse and rammed into her, sending her to the ground. As it drove away, it actually went into reverse again and almost repeated the collision.
To add insult to injury, the company tried to make it up to the victim by offering her promo codes for its food delivery service — which sounds sort of like getting bit by a stranger’s dog and being given the chance to pet it as consolation.
