Glendale Bans Delivery Robots on Sidewalks
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- Glendale has enacted a temporary moratorium on delivery robots on city sidewalks while officials develop a regulatory framework, with Long Beach recently taking a similar less-draconian approach.
- Coco, a delivery robot company founded in 2020 by two UCLA graduates, has expanded across the country and recently announced a bigger, next-generation model, increasing the bots' sidewalk presence.
- The author describes a minutes-long standoff between two opposite-running Coco bots outside Cafe Figaro, forcing pedestrians — including her husband with a cane — into the street to get around the noncommunicative vehicles.
- Chicago, Toronto, and San Francisco have already instituted outright bans on delivery robots, while supporters counter that the bots are an environmentally friendly alternative to car-based delivery drivers.
- Critics frame the robots as "sidewalk lice" that create hazards and displace the human delivery drivers who increasingly rely on gig work as AI threatens other entry-level positions.
- The piece draws a parallel to the e-bike craze, noting that demand for environmentally friendly alternatives has outpaced regulators' ability to address the safety and sidewalk-access problems they create.
Why it matters: Cities are racing to regulate autonomous sidewalk devices before they proliferate, and the regulatory vacuum is forcing local officials into reactive moratoria. Delivery drivers — among the last accessible gig-economy jobs as AI shrinks other entry-level work — face displacement pressure even as the robots' supporters tout them as a greener alternative to car-based delivery.
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