Philadelphia Woman Gets Arrested Blocking Delivery Bot, but Keeps Holding the Line in Robot Resistance
Confrontation near the market
The incident happened last week near Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market, where the woman saw an Uber-operated delivery robot traveling to a destination. She positioned herself in front of it and prevented it from continuing, according to the report.
Other people called police after the standoff continued. Officers ordered the woman to move aside; when she reportedly declined, they arrested her and charged her with disorderly conduct.
Her stated reason for protesting
The woman told ABC 13 that she had blocked delivery robots before and intended to keep doing so. She said she sees the demonstrations as a way to object to robots taking work from human delivery workers.
A previous robot controversy
Philadelphia was also where the hitchhiking robot HitchBOT’s 2015 trip across the country ended. The robot had traveled through Canada, Germany and the Netherlands with help from people who picked it up and carried it onward.
In Philadelphia, HitchBOT was vandalized and beheaded rather than taken farther, the article says. The account links that episode with the recent dispute, while describing the woman’s actions as a protest against delivery robots.
Key points
- A 78-year-old woman was arrested after blocking an Uber-operated delivery robot near Reading Terminal Market.
- Police charged her with disorderly conduct after she reportedly refused to move.
- She said she opposes delivery robots because she believes they take jobs from human workers.
- The article also recalls HitchBOT being vandalized in Philadelphia in 2015.