Robot Wars, Bike Edition: Fuming cyclist “brake checked” by delivery robot chucks it into hedge in viral clip – and gets scolded by drivers for riding on pavement; Vuelta mountain-top finish; The longest stem in the world? + more on the live blog
Robot Wars, Bike Edition: Fuming cyclist “brake checked” by delivery robot chucks it into hedge in viral clip – and gets scolded by drivers for riding on pavement
Have you ever seen a hipster cyclist riding a fixie slam into the back of a small food delivery robot on the pavement, call the robot a “f***ing piece of s***”, and then fling it into the hedge? Well, now you have:
And before you ask, no, this isn’t behind-the-scenes footage of the live-action remake of WALL-E.
Instead, it’s a clip that’s been doing the rounds showing the latest, rather funny confrontation between humans and artificially intelligent machines in Chicago, where tiny futuristic delivery robots – formally known as autonomous urban delivery vehicles – have been causing quite the stir in recent week.
A few days ago, another clip went viral showing a swarm of delivery robots operated by the firm Coco taking up an entire footpath (and you thought Lime bike parking in London was bad).
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They’ve only been active in Chicago for a short spell, but the bots, which drop off food and groceries and are guided by GPS and sensors, have already sent residents to the hospital and smashed through bus stops, prompting city officials to set up an exclusion zone banning their use in certain places.
And it seems our fixie-riding cyclist finally had enough, after being ‘brake-checked’ (as one commenter accurately described it) by one of the bots on the footpath.
While the cyclist’s reaction was unexpected (causing the car’s passengers filming the scene to burst into hysterics), the reaction to the Metro’s clip of the incident was inevitable.
“He should not be riding on the pavement” – that was the gist of about 500 of the 700 or so comments under the newspaper’s post, where viewers were determined to publicly note that they sided with the machine over the person on the bike (who’s always in the wrong, regardless of the situation, it seems).
I also noticed quite a few references to “Lycra” in the comments, which is funny because our hipster, long-haired friend isn’t wearing any.
“It was hard to miss a massive robot with a flag, crashing into it is the forst [sic] sign his lycra is too tight and restricting blood flow to the brain, the second is not being able to differentiate between the road and foot path,” wrote Daniel Wilks. Anything to mention Lycra on the internet, eh?
This week’s viral clip isn’t the first time delivery bots and cyclists have butted heads over in the US.
Last October, a New Jersey cyclist was left hospitalised after being hit by a small delivery robot which darted across his path in the cycle lane, causing him to fly over the handlebars, before attempting to “flee the scene”.
“Suddenly, an object about the size of a Coleman cooler, maybe a little bigger, appeared right in front of me,” cyclist Conor Shannon, who broke his collarbone and suffered concussion in the crash, told Newsweek in May.
According to the cyclist, who can’t remember anything about the crash, the robot then tried to scurry away from the scene, only to be blocked by a passer-by (if only it were that easy for hit-and-run drivers).
“Next thing I know, I was unconscious, and when I came to, I was getting helped into an ambulance,” Connor continued. “These things are obviously very dangerous. It’s six months later and I’m still trying to get back to normal.”
RIP Wiggle and Chain Reaction: And that’s that, and there was nothing we could do about it
And now, the end is near,
Our websites face the final curtain,
Once the biggest, but now it’s correct,
When you click, all you’ll get is a redirect…
That’s not a stem. That’s a stem…
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Ah, I see you’ve played stupidly sized stemmy before.
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Latest Comments
We keep hearing about how much damage a heavy eapc can do but surely the rider's weight has more influence. The weight of the bike has little additional impact if the rider is 100kg.... A 20kg eapc and a 70kg rider is less!
Another confounding factor is that your average e-bike user is more likely to be a novice rider. There are so many other variables that go along with e-bikes vs standard bikes that it's impossible to draw any conclusions from the correlational (uncontrolled) study.
@chrisonabike No idea - I was just sharing what I saw on local Facebook, posted by a local councillor with info from the local police!
@Bungle_52 yep, it's a balance. Those who already cycle, will. And (in the UK) we are justifiably suspicious about "great new infra" (and even more how drivers will ignore it) / irked by "get off the road" demands. OTOH given that plenty of streets are 30mph, and "20 means 25" and loaded with shopping on my town hack I'm not doing near 20mph either ... I *am* "in the way" (albeit to nobody's great inconvenience). And even on speedier machines I've almost zero desire nowadays to claim my "right to the road" on many A-roads. And "not cycling with motor traffic" / "I want to travel with others side-by-side" are extra blockers to most people taking the bike. So I'll keep saying "look what we could have - to *everyone's* benefit". But until we get there keep using whatever infra works for me!
Accountability is good, but is this it? Or is this really for publicity / PR? All the cycle and scooter hire vehicles I've seen elsewhere have fairly legible ID numbers somewhere on them anyway, albeit not as a "numberplate". Remind us how it works with motor vehicles again? "Sorry, it's a hire / pool vehicle, we've no idea who was in it". Or "it's my vehicle but maybe the plates were cloned? I've no idea who was driving it anyway, wasn't me". Then: follow the money. For many dockless funding models (Forrest included) it's not the riders or the locality providing most of the money, it's the investors. I've no idea if the "exclusivity" here also involves the borough paying a good fraction of their costs. But I suspect they have limited leverage with Forest.
Im pretty sure they meant Byway BS.
@Blackthorne83 He would, but he's eaten his bike
Will it include a detector for when the rider is using their phone whilst cycling?
@HoarseMann Totally agree. In Cheltenham there is a relatively new cycle path from the racecourse to just outside the town center. I now use the road on the way in to town as its down hill and even I can get above 15mph. On the road you don't have to slow down for side roads in case a driver doesn't realise who has priority (me), driveways, pedestrians, sometimes with children, or even other slower cyclists. You also don't have to wait as long at the lights at the end of the cycle path as cars seem to be given priority, you get kicked out onto the road any way at that point. On the way out it's uphill and, as I'm going a lot slower, the cycle path gets me out of the way of frustrated drivers so I use it.
@ROOTminus1 Much the same comments were made chez Harris as we watched "as live" this evening, general consensus being it probably wasn't the shoes that caused the slip but a gust of wind catching the monstrous millinery.