Love them or hate them, delivery robots are becoming part of everyday life in Canadian cities.
The small, wheeled robots are already being used in parts of the world to deliver coffee, takeout, and groceries along city sidewalks.
Now, Vancouver is preparing to test the technology closer to home.
Vancouver city council has approved a six-month pilot project set to launch this fall, allowing delivery robots to operate on select downtown streets and in Kitsilano.
The move is drawing mixed reactions and raising questions about whether the technology could eventually arrive in Victoria.
“Yes,” said Philip Reece, CEO of Indro Robotics. “It’s coming for sure.”
Others are less enthusiastic.
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Victoria councillor Jeremy Caradonna says bringing delivery robots to the city is not currently a priority.
“It’s a little unclear what the problem is they’re trying to solve,” Caradonna said. “Because it would create other problems.”
Among the concerns are already-crowded sidewalks, where mobility scooters, cyclists, pedestrians, and other wheeled devices are all competing for space.
There are also practical challenges. Delivery robots operating elsewhere have occasionally run into trouble, literally, including incidents where robots became stuck in infrastructure like train tracks.
Then there’s the human factor.
“You don’t have to look far to see robots in Los Angeles being ridden on top of and all sorts of things,” Reece said, noting the machines are often tampered with or treated like novelties.
Still, he believes widespread adoption is inevitable as people become more comfortable with the technology and appreciate the convenience.
“It’s too big a movement for it not to come to Victoria sooner or later,” he said.
Not everyone is convinced that’s a good thing.
Some residents worry about the impact on delivery jobs and broader concerns about automation replacing human workers.
“We have to prefer humans over AI or robots,” says Lucy, visiting from Belgium.
As for what other human jobs could be stuck in the trolly tracks? “News reporters,” says Elaun, a small business owner on Broad Street. That quip was made with a straight face, so it’s unclear whether she was serious, but why not? Reporting is not robo-science.
One of the advantages humans hold is our ability to be logical. When asked whether there would be any upside to an all-robot city council, Caradonna took a long pause before answering.
“I think we should stick with human decision-making, as flawed as it may be,” he says.
There’s much to ponder, but for now, robot delivery remains something we’re more likely to see on the screens than the sidewalks.