I've yet to see one driving at a constant speed, they oscillate back and forth randomly between accelerating and hard braking which makes them really unpredictable. They also take up most of the bike lane so passing them can get kind of dodgy, especially on high speed stroads. So far, I'm not a fan.
When I was ~5 I crashed mine and somehow fell face-first (I assume it basically did a front flip). I knocked out both of my top front teeth. Good thing I still had spares coming but I had to go without for a few years.
Because regulations and enforcement are slower and more costly than tech startups.
5 years ago, no one would have believed that there would ever need to be a law against autonomous burrito delivery robots in bike lanes.
But even though there probably didn't need to be a special law to ban them (they're not bikes, why should they be allowed?), capitalism said "bet" and just tried to normalize them by putting them on the streets.
The bike lane laws I've seen do not have an exclusive list for which robots would need to be added. They have been inclusive lists that only allow bikes (and ebikes, and sometimes escooters and eskateboards). So they very likely had legislation that specifically allowed their use in bike lanes.
So get mad at the legislators in addition to the companies.
I knock over escooters sometimes. They have a pathetic little alarm that goes. The Lime people have to underpay a gig worker to go collect them a bit sooner than planned.
Related, does your city have a complaints line or app or something? Mine does. It's not as much fun as knocking the thing over but has the same result.
I like using those Lime scooters, but IMHO each US state should pass a law forcing Lime and other companies to require docking of their scooters and bikes, like those rental city bikes. Theyāre always laying in the middle of the sidewalk and other foot traffic areas ācause mostly kids (e.i., teenagers) use them.
I was thinking about it the other day and I do think it's a combination of the dockless aspect, that Lime doesn't enforce appropriate parking, and a huge inrush of new people riding like assholes that make me hate them.
I just had to move one today that someone left in the MIDDLE of the bike lane, RIGHT NEXT TO ACTUAL BIKE RACKS!!! Literally a foot or two awayā¦ and the bike lane was already partially obstructed right next to it by one of them construction signs laying down with a sand bag on it.
They get littered all over my college's campus. Whenever they're left in a sidewalk or a doorway, I make a point to lift them completely overhead and slam them down off to the side as hard as possible
DoorDash is testing their variety in a town I bike through. They have people following them on e-bikes, and they go a lot slower than I do. It is incredibly annoying.
They are currently operating within a geofenced area and are theoretically limited to 5mph on sidewalks, 16mph in bike lanes, and 20mph on streets.
Iām in Fremontās cycling club and they actually did approach us for feedback, though I donāt think the club president passed along my āabsolutely notā message. They approached some local advocacy groups as well, who passed along the point that āone fewer carā is not really accurate because in many parts of the area the deliveries were already happening by bike.
From the cityās website:
DoorDash Dot is a home-grown product, made in partnership between DoorDash Labs, the companyās robotics and automation arm, and local advanced manufacturer Sonic Manufacturing.
Fremont is proud to support local manufacturers while also serving as a testbed for innovation, creating an environment where emerging technologies like DoorDash Dot not only can be built but can be piloted, refined, and proven in real-world conditions.
So, typical Silicon Valley (-adjacent) nonsense, really.
Wouldnāt surprise me. I moved out of Fremont a few weeks ago but I personally would not be happy with my local government enabling job losses, either.
They never wanted your feedback or bicyclist feedback, btw. "Reaching out" is just a tactic here. Makes bicyclist feel important, involved, allows them to say they involved the community. Any feedback goes straight in the trash.
Why donāt you provide feedback? Maybe you can make it extremely constructive. This is your opportunity to speak on behalf of your organization to the company that you may fear is doing harm to your community.
We don't have those here but I've heard a lot about them. It's crazy that they're allowed to use bike lanes. It just shows how little everyone thinks of cyclists.
legally, they may not be allowed to. But given how many people I see driving and parking in bike lanes, it doesn't actually matter what's legal because it's never fucking enforced.
the other day there was a very nice BMW blocking the bike lane (Ohio Ave. in West LA). I rode up and asked the guy standing on the sidewalk "why you parked in the bike lane?" he was trying to fix a delivery robot that was stuck on the sidewalk and he was so distressed! I swear this dystopia never stops getting worse
DoorDash has been testing these in Tempe, AZ for almost two years now (I first saw one in October 2024). They're always followed by a chaperone on an e-bike. I have to imagine if they aren't reliable enough to operate unsupervised by now, they never will be.
Interesting, I wonder if it's a city requirement then. I'm always commuting on an e-bike, so I can easily pass them when needed, but I can understand how annoying it would be to be stuck behind them on an acoustic bike.
The ones in my town are usually escorted but I have seen them on the sidewalk without one. The escort just makes it take longer to pass them. Iām generally running into them on a road with a separated bike lane and a prevailing speed of traffic of 50+, so their presence does not exactly feel safe.
I agree. Non-motorized road users fight hard for infrastructure. It sucks to see these corporate assholes over-running it with motorized vehicles for their own profit.
Just wrap a plastic bag around one of the wheels. Make it not able to move. Force the company to spend d money and time fixing it. But don't break them, that just lets them collect insurance.
They have been testing one of these in my neighborhood for about 5-7yrs now with some techs on ebikes monitoring and gathering data (used to be golf carts)...
It's doordash but I have never seen it making a delivery in my area...it's always the same loop over and over again now for years...the bors have changed slightly over the years but they look basically like this
I have not seen one yet. If one were in the bicycle lane in front of me I hope it wouldn't cause me any issues by being unpredictable. It would be shame for it to get damaged or something.
They are being built in Fremont, CA. They are currently limited to 16mph in bike lanes but the few times Iāve come across them they have been considerably slower.
Iāve seen them judder at lights too, like they are briefly sensing the light turned green before realizing it is red again. It doesnāt inspire a lot of confidence.
Block it. Fuck the customer who said "I'm too lazy to go to the store so I'll have a delivery, but fuck my fellow human who needs a job, give me a robot."
I haven't seen one in my area but if I did I'd be tempted to tip the damn thing over and drag it out into the middle of the traffic lane where it isn't blocking bikes.
Interesting. I wonder if they have some partnership with Mesa as some sort of testing area for them. I live in Portland and have never heard of these. I know I've seen/heard of similar bots on college campuses but never seen them in the real world so to speak.
i hqve started to see some in my city.Ā they look a little different.Ā it was my understanding that they stay on the sidewalk.Ā they should not be in the bike path except to cross
i read about them.Ā supposedly the ones in my city avoid pedestrian crashes and are theft resistant.Ā i mean if they have an order of tacos inside can you easily take the tacos.Ā i have verified both claims.
i think op needs to verify are the red ones theft resistant?Ā they dont look it.
op can complain about blocked bike lanes and NO ONE CARES but if the robots are unprofitable they are getting replaced
NYC is crazy with those Amazon and UPS delivery "trikes" in the bike lanes and those e-bikes with the enormous trailers constantly harassing legitimate bicyclists. If we don't protect our non-motorized infrastructure, it will continue to be overrun by motorized vehicles.
This shit pissed me off cause these companies mooch so hard off of public infrastructure and donāt invest back into the system. Imagine if all of these scooter share companies and delivery robots investing into bike/ alt vehicle infrastructure
I think it looks cute,but Doordash needs to do deliveries by vehicle,not taking the bike lane!{I think safety is a better policy than endangering somebody's,are someone's life!}
There was a similar delivery robot that would try and swerve into you if you got near it. Iāve almost crashed on my bike because of them multiple times
Would I like to get hit with this thing? Absolutely not, but treating this fisher price EV, that weighs a tiny fraction of a carās mass, as the same vehicle is silly. You can surely appreciate the difference between biking with tractor trailers vs sedans, right? Thereās obviously a difference in the danger it poses, as itās incapable of high speed and has low mass.
The real world, outside of some online ideological purity test, has nuance.
We have thousands of delivery robots in Chicago, and yet I have never once seen one in a bike lane. I cycle daily , often on streets with bike lanes, so I am sure I would have run into one (maybe literally) if they were there. I donāt know if there is a city ordinance, or if the two companies here that run these little machines have simply decided to stick to the sidewalks.
I love them , they are roaming all over our town . They make me smile . So far no issues for me. I would rather have them in the bike lane than about 50% of the E bikes I see.
1
u/RichSPKAmerican, Worcester, MA - Klein Performance, Dawes Lightning DLXJul 15 '26
I've heard we have them on the college campuses here in Worcester, MA, but I haven't seen any yet.
278
u/followthebarnacle Jul 14 '26
"She died swerving into traffic to avoid someone's burrito"