It’s not every day that you are wandering around your neighborhood and get a glimpse of the future. Yet there I was minding my own business when I bumped into..
It’s not every day that you are wandering around your neighborhood and get a glimpse of the future. Yet there I was minding my own business when I bumped into what appeared to be a Yelp/Eat24 “delivery robot” cruising around San Francisco’s Mission District on a Friday afternoon.
To be clear, the robot didn’t appear to be “working,” as it was flanked by two photographers intent on capturing its movements as it slowly crossed Valencia Street. This was more of a photo shoot than it was a delivery operation.
Nor was it entirely autonomous: Despite the presence of LiDAR and cameras on the robot’s body, it appeared to be steered by a woman following close behind who was holding a PlayStation controller.
But it does point to a day when robots would eventually replace humans in yet another job — in this case, that of the Yelp/Eat24 delivery carrier.
Yelp, of course, declined to comment on the clearly branded robot wandering around San Francisco, but there are a few things notable about it.
