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Delivery Robots Being Bullied, Robbed
Robots are really taking a beating these days, especially those new delivery robots in Los Angeles.
(Delivery robot bullied)
Unfortunately, some of the robotic delivery vehicles are taking a beating, with several viral videos showing people kicking the autonomous bots over and even stealing the products inside.“We have to remake the food, but luckily we still get reimbursed for that,” said Steve Avila, general manager of Blu Jam Café in Hollywood. “I can see how [delivery companies] can be hurting from it, especially because it seems like [the delivery robots] are pretty expensive.”
(Thieves steal from Delivery robots)
Philip K. Dick saw this coming sixty years ago. In Autofac, humans tired of being replaced in everything by robots try to take their planet back.
"Each factory is limited to its own operational area," O'Neill said, "but the network itself is unbounded. It can go on scooping up our resources forever. The Institute decided it gets top priority; we mere people come second.""Will there be anything left for us?" Morrison wanted to know.
(Mob beats up helpless robot in 'Autofac')Without warning, Morrison swung the steel pipe in his hand. It slashed against the machine's shoulder and burst through the elaborate network of sensory apparatus that made up its chest. The tank of receptors shattered; bits of glass, wiring and minute parts showered everywhere.
"It's a paradox!" Morrison yelled. "A word game — a semantic game they're pulling on us. The Cyberneticists have it rigged." He raised the pipe and again brought it down savagely on the unprotesting machine. "They've got us hamstrung. We're completely helpless."
The room was in uproar. "It's the only way," Perine gasped as he pushed past O'Neill. "We'll have to destroy them — it's the network or us." Grabbing down a lamp, he hurled it in the "face" of the factory representative. The
lamp and the intricate surface of plastic burst; Perine waded in, groping blindly for the machine. Now all the people in the room were closing furiously around the upright cylinder, their impotent resentment boiling over. The machine sank down and disappeared as they dragged it to the floor.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 8/13/2023)
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