this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2026
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/53250107

Police confirmed they had responded to a report of "criminal mischief involving a robot" on the 1200 block of Filbert Street around 1:16 p.m. on Wednesday. A woman on the scene ignored "multiple commands" to move, they said, resulting in a criminal violation notice for disorderly conduct.

Uber declined to comment.

Marvin, who plans to contest the charge on the grounds of her First Amendment right to protest, has been undeterred by the arrest. She plans to continue blocking Uber Eats robots and chatting with curious passersby who ask what she's doing.

"It allows me to talk to people about what's going on," she said. "It's always very interesting conversations that we have, and I think it's good to have those kinds of conversations in public space."

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[–] peacepath@lemmy.world 8 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Has it been set illegal to disobey "multiple commands" of a privately owned robot?

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

When police say somebody ignored commands, they mean from them. They don't get paid to enforce robot commands.

[–] Bluedragon012@lemmy.world 23 points 13 hours ago

You know.. I'm surprised that no one has.. Done more? I'm surprised hunting these things isn't a trend..

[–] brownsugga@lemmy.world 0 points 4 hours ago

This is the stupidest thing

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 0 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Instead of fighting innovation I think she should be fighting for workers to share its benefits. For example, when automation means less human labor is needed for a task, what if the workers who do that task could benefit by working fewer hours with no cut in pay? In our current system the owners get all the benefits in the form of increased profits - why can't they be shared? I would think a college professor would be smart enough to see that and work on figuring out how to make it happen, rather than simply standing on the sidewalk.

In a world that worked according to her standard, we would still have armies of bookkeepers doing manual arithmetic and writing numbers in ledgers, because businesses that tried to use computerized accounting systems would have been boycotted. As a result the whole computing industry would have developed much more slowly, if it developed at all, and we wouldn't have forums such as lemmy for discussions like this.

[–] Monument@piefed.world 9 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

The little nub on the top is a LIDAR module.

I wonder if an upside down cup will fit over it.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

They can be remotely piloted from call centers overseas. So this would be a very temporary hurdle.

[–] HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 10 hours ago

Large googly eyes slapped onto the cameras. Using suction cups. Or cheap dollar store Christmas lights powred by two AA lightly wrapped around it and over it's cameras to blind them.

Both would be non destructive and non damaging.

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 44 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

If you can block bots online, why can't you block them in the physical world?

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world -1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Because robots in the physical world are legal, and in this case using public sidewalks. Online bots are violating terms of service as defined by the human owners of websites.

[–] Bazoogle@lemmy.world 1 points 8 minutes ago

You blocking bots ona platform has nothing to do with ToS. Blocking a robot is just standing in front of it, it's not human. You are allowed to stand on a public sidewalk. If it stops moving because you stand in front if it, how is that illegal?

[–] tigermountain@lemmy.world 4 points 12 hours ago

Probably within a year Uber starts building these with extendable cattle prods that shock people to the ground that are in their way and then just crawl over them to finish their delivery.

[–] Hupf@feddit.org 14 points 17 hours ago

ignored "multiple commands"

please move

[–] Hueristic_Autistic@lemmy.world 13 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (3 children)

Steal one and inject a virus into it and then make it run into a wall a bunch of times, ensuring the complete destruction of the device.. 😜 Call the nearest news outlet and claim that the robot was suicidal-homicidal and was trying to smash you and it into a wall and wait for a news report. The robots get pushed back by skepticism of safety towards humans.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 8 points 10 hours ago

inject a virus into it

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 13 hours ago

And then everyone claps

[–] grepe@lemmy.world 13 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

i see you don't know how the news works recently...

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