Retired Penn professor, 78, cited after blocking Uber Eats delivery robot in Philadelphia

Mixed · 2Carolyn Marvin, a 78-year-old retired communications professor at the University of Pennsylvania, was arrested and cited for disorderly conduct in Philadelphia after standing in the way of an autonomous delivery robot. 1 2 Mixed · 2The Times of India dates the incident to 14 October. The Independent places it near the 1200 block of Filbert Street in Center City, as Marvin was returning home from a flu shot. 1 2 Mixed · 2A crowd gathered, with some people supporting her and others criticising her, and Marvin suspects someone in it called the police. Police told The Independent they were responding to a report of criminal mischief involving a robot. 1 2

Centre · 1In an email quoted by the Times of India, police said officers found a woman "who was refusing to allow a delivery robot to pass" and gave multiple commands to move, which she did not follow. According to the Times of India, officers handcuffed her, put her in a police vehicle and issued a citation. 1 Mixed · 2Marvin says she had blocked robots on earlier occasions, for a few minutes at a time and only when it was "convenient and possible". She told CNN, as quoted by The Independent: "I was under the impression that I had more rights than the robot did." She also said, "I wasn't impeding any persons. I was impeding a machine." 2 1 Left · 1Marvin describes the protest as symbolic. She cites the displacement of delivery workers, risks to people on sidewalks and privacy concerns over the robots' cameras, and claims a First Amendment right to protest corporate conduct in public space. 2

Left · 1She says she has also protested for civil rights and abortion rights, supported Black Lives Matter, and opposed the Vietnam and Gulf wars. She sees this campaign as an extension of that activism. 2 Mixed · 2After her arrest, Marvin learned that Pennsylvania's Act 106 of 2020 classifies delivery robots, legally "personal delivery devices", as pedestrians. Motorists must yield to them at crosswalks, but the robots must yield to pedestrians and cyclists in pedestrian areas. 2 1 Centre · 1The Times of India adds that the 2020 law was largely opposed by Democrats, labour unions and accessibility advocates and supported by Republicans. It also reports that Uber Eats launched its robot fleet in Philadelphia in March, and that videos show people kicking and vandalising such robots. 1

Mixed · 2Marvin says the delay to customers is small, perhaps 15 minutes for an office worker's lunch. Asked whether she would resume blocking robots, she answered "Oh yeah", adding in the Times of India that she would watch for police. Uber Eats did not respond to the Times of India's request for comment, and The Independent said it had requested comment. 2 1