People against robots. Some Californians show aggression towards robility

One of the main advantages of unmanned vehicles is that they will dramatically increase safety on the roads and save millions of lives. The autopilot program is devoid of the main factor of unpredictability, due to which the majority of accidents occur - the person.

But it seems that not all people are grateful to the robots for their great saving mission. At least in San Francisco there are strange and unexplained cases of human aggression against unmanned vehicles . Get at least dry reports on car accidents in the state of California with the participation of unmanned vehicles. In 2018, seven such incidents were recorded. In two marked a clear aggression of man.

Judge for yourself.

Here is the crash report on January 2, 2018 (document above). The GM Cruise in autopilot mode got into an accident in the city of San Francisco when turning right from north Valencia Street to 16th Street. How did the accident happen? The car stopped at the green light between pedestrian crossings, waiting for all pedestrians to cross 16th street. At this time, another pedestrian approached from the southwest direction of the intersection of Valencia street and 16th, crossing the first one under the sign “Do not walk”, and “with shouts, hit the left side of the rear bumper and the body of the GM Cruise with its whole body” .
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The report noted that no one was injured from people, but the left rear light of the car suffered. The police did not call.


Crossroad Valencia Street and 16th Street

On January 28, 2018, another incident occurred in the same place in San Francisco near the place of the first accident, and again with the participation of GM Cruise. This time the drone was moving in manual control mode. He stopped behind a taxi car on Dubus Avenue, not far from crossing Guerrero Street. At that moment, the taxi driver left the vehicle, approached the GM Cruise and slapped the front passenger window, which caused a scratch. There were no casualties, the police were not called. ”

The incidents seem insignificant, but they demonstrate some strangely aggressive attitude of locals towards unmanned vehicles. It would seem that these cars carry civilization and a bright future on the streets of cities. But for some people, these harmless robots seem annoying.

From April 2, 2018, new rules will come into effect, which will allow run-in of unmanned vehicles in California on public roads in general in the absence of a human driver. It can be expected that then the number of accidents with their participation will increase even more, due to the fault of other pedestrians and drivers. Last year, 27 incidents were recorded with the participation of robomobiles.

It is difficult to understand the motives of ordinary people, but it is clear that the reason is not only in cars. Similar cases have been noted before. For example, last December, the SPCA Californian animal shelter had to be removed from the street by a Knightscope robot guard who patrolled the organization’s building because of numerous complaints from local residents and homeless people - they complained that the robot was “disturbing” them.


Knightscope Robot Guard

In most cases, people were simply unhappy with the presence of the robot on the street and wrote complaints, but one person was reported to “spread out the tarpaulin, knock down the robot and cover all its sensors with barbecue sauce.”

In April last year, a drunken local resident was detained by police for "attacking and attacking a Knightscope robot guard" in Mountain View, not far from Google headquarters.

Dislike of the population for autonomous robots did not pass by the attention of the authorities. In December 2017, a bill was passed in San Francisco, which limits the number of autonomous robots to deliver goods on the city’s sidewalks. The photo below shows one of these robots for the delivery of the purchase, which a local resident knocked off the wheels and left to lie in such a helpless position.


“Not every innovation is of great value to society,” said the author of the bill, Norman Yee. “If we don’t appreciate our society, if we don’t appreciate the opportunity to go to the store so that the robot does not move us ... what happens then?”