this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2026
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A retired Penn professor has been blocking Uber Eats robots for months. This week, she got arrested for it (www.phillyvoice.com)
submitted 1 week ago by UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
254 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/53250107

Police confirmed they had responded to a report of "criminal mischief involving a robot" on the 1200 block of Filbert Street around 1:16 p.m. on Wednesday. A woman on the scene ignored "multiple commands" to move, they said, resulting in a criminal violation notice for disorderly conduct.

Uber declined to comment.

Marvin, who plans to contest the charge on the grounds of her First Amendment right to protest, has been undeterred by the arrest. She plans to continue blocking Uber Eats robots and chatting with curious passersby who ask what she's doing.

"It allows me to talk to people about what's going on," she said. "It's always very interesting conversations that we have, and I think it's good to have those kinds of conversations in public space."

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[โ€“] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

robots in the physical world are legal

They are not explicitly illegal. That doesn't mean they or their owners have rights that supersede those of the general public.

[โ€“] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

The general philosophy of US law is that not being explicitly illegal means legal. Robots have no rights whatsoever, but their owners have the same rights as everybody else. Refer to my example of blocking someone's car into a parking space.