In Philadelphia, a 78-year-old retired professor was arrested after blocking a delivery robot on a sidewalk. She describes her action as a protest against these machines taking over public space and says she intends to continue.
Carolyn Marvin, a former professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania, has been opposing delivery robots on the streets of Philadelphia for several months. Her method is to stand in front of these small wheeled vehicles carrying food orders to stop them from moving forward. On 14 October, this practice led to her being detained by police.
Arrested after stopping a delivery robot
On 14 October, Carolyn Marvin was walking home after getting a flu shot. She was carrying a jar of enchilada sauce and a dish of chicken biryani when she came across a delivery robot on a busy sidewalk.
As she had done several times before, she stood in front of the machine to stop it. This time, a larger crowd than usual gathered. Some passers-by supported her, while others criticised her behaviour.
The Philadelphia police say they responded to a report of alleged damage involving a delivery robot. When officers arrived, they found a woman blocking the machine’s path. According to the police, she refused to comply despite several orders.
Officers handcuffed her, placed her in a police vehicle and issued her a citation for disorderly conduct.
Carolyn Marvin says she was surprised by the arrest. “I wasn’t stopping anyone from getting by. I was stopping a machine from getting by,” she explains. She believed she had more rights than the robot.
Why she objects to delivery robots on sidewalks
The retiree presents her interventions as a symbolic protest against the consequences of deploying delivery robots in public space.
She raises three concerns:
- Jobs: the potential replacement of low-income delivery workers by machines.
- Safety: the physical risks these vehicles could pose to people using the sidewalks.
- Privacy: questions raised by the cameras built into the robots.
Carolyn Marvin also asserts the right to protest against corporate practices in public space. She cites the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects freedom of speech among other rights.
She links this campaign to her past activism for civil rights, abortion rights and the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as her opposition to the Vietnam and Gulf wars.
How long she blocks delivery robots: 10 to 15 minutes
The robots in question are small wheeled delivery vehicles that travel on Philadelphia’s sidewalks carrying food orders. They are described as moving autonomously.
Carolyn Marvin says she usually holds these machines up for 10 to 15 minutes when she can. By her estimate, a customer might get their lunch about 15 minutes late at most.
These interventions also let her strike up conversations with passers-by. She says most of the people who ask her about it are supportive or simply curious.
Despite her arrest, the retiree plans to continue her actions against delivery robots.
Pennsylvania’s 2020 law on autonomous delivery robots
The case also raises the question of the legal status of these machines when they travel in spaces shared with pedestrians.
After her arrest, Carolyn Marvin looked into the legislation governing autonomous delivery devices in Pennsylvania. The state legislature passed a law in 2020 on their legal classification.
This regulation is now part of the framework in which her challenge to the robots’ presence on sidewalks takes place.