2014 Transit Connect Fog lights

[mrtn]

8 minutes ago, Tiller said:

I'll be interested to see the first reactions to these being on the street.

Oh, everybody are used to these already, they've been roaming around for a year all over the town and considered a normal part of sidewalk traffic.

https://www.starship.xyz/starship-technologies-completes-first-year-testing-reaches-10000-miles-driven/

Quote

“Public acceptance and positive social engagement with the delivery robots are incredibly important to us,” said Allan Martinson, COO of Starship. “From our 10,000 miles of testing the robots have experienced thousands of different interactions with the public. We’ve seen everything from children trying to feed our robot bananas, to an elderly gentleman asking if the robot can walk his dog! Most important above all else is we’ve found the delivery robots have been accepted by humans.”

 

[Tiller]

You're in the EU.  Different place.  Different values. 

Testing and evaluations are one thing.  Day-to-day use when these things are out and alone is something else.  If they are limited to very exclusive sections of the city they might work.  But in most of Washington, DC outside of the immediate capital area, if anyone thinks there is anything of value in them,  they'll simply toss a blanket over it, take it to a back alley and disable the electronics faster than you can blink.  Don't be surprised if the GPS units will be available for sale on the black market within an hour.  Once they steal one to get one to evaluate, the rest will be sitting ducks. 

[mrtn]

When the testing started the bot-walkers were following the drones a few steps behind. As the bots have become smarter the walkers have been quite far behind, like across the street and 50 yards back so you can't even tell which one it is.

Regarding theft for parts: it is deliberately made of cheap parts with a controller board like a one in a cheap smartphone and web camera modules. So stealing it for parts is more pain than gain. The only expensive part is the body (and naturally the software) and that's of no use for anyone. Also the robot is continuously streaming video from nine cameras back to the command center, so unless you're well prepared there's probably a video of you stealing or attacking it.

We'll see. They have put enormous resources in development and testing, hope it works out for everybody.

[Fifty150]

I have an XL.  My solution was old school.  Aftermarket, bolt-on fog lights.  LED that will illuminate in white or yellow, a handful of different strobe patterns that I can use for warning lights, and it's all operated by a key chain fob remote control.  No drilling through the firewall, or drilling into the dashboard.  

[Fifty150]

[mrtn]

A Wabbit!