404 Media – Delivery Robot Knocked Over Pedestrian, Company Offered ‘Promo Codes’ to Apologize
See original article by Jason Koebler at 404 Media
An on-campus delivery robot at Arizona State University ran into a university employee after “abruptly changing direction” and caused her to fall over and be injured, according to a police report obtained by 404 Media. After the Starship delivery robot began to drive away, it “abruptly goes into reverse again and heads toward [the victim] again, who is still on the ground,” the report states. In the aftermath of the incident, the company offered to give the victim its insurance information “and promo codes” for use on the service, which is used to deliver takeout food.
The incident, which happened last September, is an example of semi-autonomous delivery robots not just getting lost, causing traffic, or wandering off, but of a direct collision with a person. Another police report obtained by 404 Media involving the theft and safe return of a Starship robot shows that the company initially asked police not to charge the student, but later changed its mind and asked police to arrest him. The student was ultimately charged with a felony. These cases, obtained using public records requests, provide more insight into how incidents with delivery robots are handled by the police and by the company, and comes as Starship operates at 30 universities in the United States.
Earlier this year, 404 Media reported how Starship has ingratiated itself with universities all over the country, and how the rollout has not always gone smoothly. We previously published documents that showed Starship requested that universities take promo photos for the company only with students who have a “healthy-looking body mass index,” and how university police forces are instructed to make Starship the immediate point of contact after any incident so that the company can “lead” the investigation. We also reported that Starship robots at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte were sometimes driving into construction zones or off campus, and were regularly getting stuck at traffic lights for as long as 15 minutes “waiting for someone (remotely?) to help them cross the street.”
These new documents show that last September at Arizona State University, a Starship robot drove past a university parking employee at a parking garage. The employee “stated she waited for the delivery vehicle to pass her and crossed behind the vehicle. When she did, [the employee] stated the unmanned vehicle, which was in a forward gear moving away from her went into reverse and ran into her, knocking her on the ground. [The employee] stated the drone tried to leave and then tried to back into her again.” The police officer who arrived on the scene wrote that the employee “appeared in pain” and “complained of lower back pain.” The employee was treated by the Tempe Fire department and had a 4-inch cut on her left arm, and she “had trouble walking away.” The police report states that she declined medical assistance on the scene and was taken by another employee to the campus medical center.
The police report says that the police eventually obtained video footage of the incident, which corroborated the employee’s recollection of what happened. The employee “is seen attempting to cross the sidewalk after the unmanned vehicle passes her and then shows the unmanned vehicle abruptly changing direction in reverse hitting [the employee] and knocking her down as it continued in reverse as she fell. The unmanned vehicle then goes forward away from [the employee] a few feet and then abruptly goes into reverse again and heads toward [the employee] again, who is still on the ground. I observed when the unmanned vehicle changed direction the second time when it struck [the employee], there was not a vehicle attempting to enter the garage or any other thing appearing to be in front of it. The unmanned vehicle then waits a while then leaves almost into the path of a vehicle attempting to enter the parking garage.”
When a Starship employee talked to the police, the report says, he asked for the employee’s information “so he could contact her and offer their insurance information for her injuries and ‘promo codes.’”
“We are aware of a situation over a year ago where a robot came into contact with a pedestrian at extremely low speed after detecting an oncoming vehicle,” a spokesperson for Starship told 404 Media. “Safety is our number one priority, we take every incident seriously, the case was thoroughly investigated at the time.”
The police report itself specifically points out “the second time when it struck [the employee], there was not a vehicle attempting to enter the garage or any other thing appearing to be in front of it.” When I asked Starship about this, the spokesperson said “We’re not able to comment in detail on individual cases. In this instance, our insurer is handling this matter.”
Arizona State University police declined to comment. The victim in this case did not respond to a request for comment. Starship was not charged or cited in the case, according to the police report.
404 Media also obtained a report showing what happened after two students who had been drinking took a Starship robot into their dorm room. The robot was eventually returned undamaged and the students told police that they “made a bad decision and that it was a stupid joke with no intent to steal or damage the robot.” Starship initially told police that because “the robot was not damaged and since it was returned to the fleet Starship Technologies would not aid in prosecution.”
Nine days after telling police it would not aid in prosecution, Starship called police again and “decided they wished to aide [sic] in prosecution.” Starship said it could not provide police with video of the incident because the robot was not filming and was in “idle” mode, but the report states that Starship gave the police information about the robot’s movement, and said that it had evidence “depicting vertical movement.” Police say the students put the robot in a dorm elevator. With this evidence, police arrested the two students on felony theft charges. Police later got video from the robot in the dorm from the Barstool Tempe TikTok account (that footage has since been deleted from TikTok).
“Incidents involving the police are dealt with on a case by case basis depending on the severity and circumstances of the incident,” the Starship spokesperson said.
See original article by Jason Koebler at 404 Media
