A sidewalk delivery robot is formally known as a Personal Delivery Device (PDD) to a U.S. state legislator. Currently, I am aware of 19 states that have prepared statutes for this technology (11 passed, five pending, and three failed). While these numbers will soon be out of date, there are certainly going to be 50 of these passed before the last of us gets a meal delivered this way.

As the project leader of an international standardization project (ISO/4448) that includes describing data and procedures for operating these and other automated machines at our curbside and on our sidewalks and crosswalks, I have read through these legislative examples in search of insight.

I have several concerns around weight, speed, momentum, registration, device IDs, insurance, enforcement, monetization, and the definition of pedestrian and vehicle.

Weight

Maximum unloaded weights range from 80-550 pounds, while one state set the maximum loaded weight at 750 pounds. Loaded weight, in my opinion, makes more sense from a risk perspective. Interestingly, several of the newest legislative entries are silent about weight. This is understandable, as the companies engaged in lobbying for these regulations represent different classes of machines. For convenience here, I will describe three of these.

The smaller ones (lunch size) are suitable for two bags of groceries or a couple of lunches. Fully loaded, these smaller devices might weigh 50 to 60 pounds. Several states, thinking about these, set an upper limit of 80 pounds, empty.

Midsize machines (express delivery size) are made to carry packaged goods that range more widely in size and weight and because of the size of their cargo bay are larger and heavier. Hence, several states have selected empty weight limits between 120 and 200 pounds.

There is a yet larger size of robotic delivery vehicle (mobile-retailer size). This size would carry goods for multiple personal deliveries, or might be used as a roving retail store that arrives on demand and allows customers to select goods from its shelves. This latter machine can be quite a bit heavier, and is expected to move along an urban roadway rather than a sidewalk.

Size matter, but legislators may not always be aware of the coming variety and complexity. They may find themselves considering the weights, speeds and dimensions that are being immediately presented by a lobbyist.

As of late 2020, one state has already updated its 2017 statutes from 50 to 500 pounds and another from 80 to 200 pounds. Who says legislators are not nimble?

Speed

Some maximum speeds (for roadways) are set at 20 or 25 mph, while maximum sidewalk (and usually crosswalk) speeds are set between 3.5 to 12 miles per hour.  Eight are set at 10 mph, and eight at 12 mph. Only two are set at six mph. 10 and 12 mph might be fine if there are no proximate humans. But 3.5 mph is more sensible around children, pets, and older pedestrians. The legislation implies, but never clearly demands, that PDD operators will use speed appropriately. And the few penalties suggested are inadequate.

Most, but not all statutes, describe a registered operator. But assuming that all registered operators are always diligent in order to minimize their business liability, is not necessarily a viable approach. Hired humans are still at the helm, even if “only monitoring” or “only teleoperating.” And machine are machines and machines fail. Humans will decide how these machines are loaded and other humans and eventually human-written code will determine actual speeds — generally in realtime. It is the combination of weight and speed, or momentum, that causes harm. The recognition of this fact is never explicit in any of the 19 U.S. states legislation I have reviewed.

It is the presence of vulnerable and distracted humans that makes this speed-weight issue critical for sidewalk safety. Since not all users of the legislation will be versed in physics, this can be partially addressed with a speed-weight table.

Insurance

All 19 statutes require a minimum $100,000 in liability — some on a per-device or per-incident basis and others on a combined fleet basis. One statute reads: “$100,000 for damages arising from the combined operations of personal delivery devices under the entity’s or agent’s control,” while another reads: “…general liability coverage of not less than one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) per person per accident for personal injury coverage and property damage coverage…”

Imagine an operator with a fleet of 100,000 devices in one state that required $100,000 liability for the combined operation but in the adjacent state with $100,000 per PDD. Large operators such as Amazon, FedEx, and Uber, may self-insure, but these statutes need to express insurance requirements more consistently so that local or specialty operators and their insurance companies can understand how to proceed.

Registration and unique ID

All statutes require a marker, plate or decal to identify the owner/operator of a PDD or PDD fleet. Many of those require a “unique ID” per device. Very few of those require a registration process for devices. And only one of those that do require registration specify the process.

In the event of a claimable incident, any uncertainty concerning the specific device involved could become an issue. Imagine a fleet operator was operating two devices in close proximity. One of the two devices was operating at a legal weight and speed with correctly installed lights and brakes, etc., but the second was not. Any insurance policy would likely require the device to have been operating according to the applicable statute in order to claim. How would being unable to establish which device was involved influence the claim process?

Enforcement

Enforcement guidance is provided in only 20% of the statutes I reviewed. Coupled with a clause common to a majority of these statutes — “a local authority may not regulate the operation of a [PDD] in a manner that is inconsistent with this article” — means that not only will enforcement vary from state to state, but it will also vary from city to city and county to county. Because the behaviour of the vehicles will be increasingly automated, a high variety of enforcement regimes will complicate matters for businesses, courts and peace officers. The nature of state and local jurisdiction means that this problem may be difficult to address, but the current statutes probably make it worse.

Monetization

The impact of PDDs is to shift the delivery of goods from motor vehicles that arrive at the curb to smaller vehicles that use city sidewalks and pedestrian crosswalks instead.  This cannot be done at zero cost to local governments, which will need to fund and perhaps monetize this activity. These statutes are silent about monetization (it is not a state matter), and it is not easy to tell if all of them would permit it.

Pedestrian or Vehicle?

These statutes struggle to describe whether a PDD is an exceptional pedestrian or an exceptional vehicle. Saying that a PDD “has all the rights and duties applicable to a pedestrian under the same circumstances, except that the [PDD] must not unreasonably interfere with pedestrians or traffic and must yield the right-of-way to pedestrians on the sidewalk or crosswalk” seems easy to understand.  But saying that the meaning of “Pedestrian” includes “Personal Delivery Device”, as another statute reads, is not. A PDD is a new sort of vehicle or machine that the statutes are calling a “device”. Bicycles (excluding children’s toys) are considered vehicles largely because they are constrained to the roadway and to the flow of automotive traffic. Legislators appear to be associating PDDs with the meaning of “Pedestrian” because PDDs started on the sidewalk. But larger PDDs are designed and intended for the roadway.

There are wide differences between vehicles and pedestrians in regards to safety, enforcement, insurance, momentum, and monetization. PDDs need an unambiguously different classification. They will share some rules with pedestrians, some with other vehicles.

It is an error not to demand the registration of unique IDs per device. It is an error to constrain local municipalities in regard to rule making. It is an error to begin the process of mechanizing pedestrian spaces without taking more care in regards to momentum. It is an error to set up the statutes for PDDs without explicit permission to monetize, which for many of these 19 states may be blocked.

Reliable Guidance

In my judgment, the majority of these statutes do not provide reliable guidance for any enforcement or liability matter. Some are better than others. None are ready for operation in real urban-human environments.

In my judgment, the majority of these statutes do not provide reliable guidance for any enforcement or liability matter. Some are better than others. None are ready for operation in real urban-human environments.

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Find out more about our maturity and readiness modeling for sidewalk robots.  bern@harmonizemobility.com