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Covid-19 Has Made People More Tolerant of Robots
The pandemic has caused a shift in how people view — and use — delivery robots
Covid-19 entails all kinds of tradeoffs, challenges, and moral decisions. What’s the best balance between re-opening economies versus safeguarding vulnerable populations? Which jobs are considered essential, and which are not? Should I wear a mask (yes, you should)?
One big moral quandary some have faced has been the decision about whether to order takeout food from restaurants, using services like Doordash. On the one hand, ordering from local restaurants is a way to support small businesses in your community. But on the other hand, there are concerns that placing a food order puts the delivery person at risk. They need to go into a restaurant, drive around to deliver your order — maybe even risk arrest if there is a curfew in your city.
But what if your delivery “person” wasn’t a person at all, but a robot?
Delivery robots were already gaining traction before Covid-19, and had been used in communities like Berkeley and Mountain View, California to deliver food to college students and techie office workers. But they were more a novelty than a consistent, visible option for consumers.
