Carolyn Marvin had made a habit of standing in front of autonomous delivery robots on Philadelphia sidewalks, delaying the wheeled machines for a few minutes as they carried lunchtime orders. But a routine blockade following her flu shot resulted in her first arrest, transforming a quirky one-woman protest into a legal challenge over public space and the rights of machines.
“I was under the impression that I had more rights than the robot did,” Marvin said, laughing.
Uber Eats deployed its self-driving delivery fleet in Philadelphia in March, making it the fourth city to use the service. While some residents have welcomed the technology, others have expressed hostility, with videos capturing people sitting on, vandalizing, or kicking the devices.
Marvin, a 78-year-old retired University of Pennsylvania communications professor, views her actions as a symbolic protest against corporate encroachment, labor displacement, physical hazards on sidewalks, and privacy concerns raised by embedded cameras. “I also think that I have a First Amendment right to protest the abuses of corporations in public space, in the same public space that the robots are occupying,” she said, drawing parallels to her past activism for civil rights, abortion rights, Black Lives Matter, and opposition to the Vietnam and Gulf wars.
Her protests are opportunistic rather than full-time. If she encounters a robot and it is convenient, she spends 10 to 15 minutes blocking its path, moving as it does. The only consequence, she notes, is that an office worker’s lunch bowl might be delayed by about 15 minutes at most. She added that her standoffs frequently sparked curious or supportive conversations with passersby.
That dynamic shifted on October 14. Returning home with a jar of enchilada sauce in one hand and chicken biryani takeout in the other, she blocked a robot in a busy area. As a larger-than-normal crowd gathered—with some onlookers offering support and others criticism—she suspects someone called the police. Officers arrived, handcuffed her, placed her in a squad car, and issued a citation for disorderly conduct.
Philadelphia police stated that they responded to a report of criminal mischief involving a delivery robot. According to an email from the department, officers encountered a female refusing to allow the robot to pass and issued multiple commands to move, which she refused to obey.
Following her arrest, Marvin investigated the legal framework supporting the technology. In 2020, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a measure classifying autonomous delivery robots as “personal delivery devices” rather than vehicles. The bill divided lawmakers, with Republicans praising technological innovation while Democrats, labor unions, and accessibility advocates warned of job losses and safety hazards for children and pedestrians.
John Mattiacci, a Philadelphia personal injury attorney, explained that under the statute, vehicles must yield to delivery robots in crosswalks just as they would to humans, though the law technically requires the devices to yield to pedestrians and cyclists in pedestrian areas. Uber Eats did not respond to requests for comment.
Marvin sees the proliferation of delivery bots as part of a broader surrender of public space to technology. “There’s a way in which we’ve surrendered the streets to cars long ago, and I don’t think we should surrender the sidewalks to machines,” she said, noting that while artificial intelligence and algorithms remain intangible, sidewalk robots offer a visible target for anti-tech frustration.
Asked if she plans to resume her protests, Marvin was succinct. “Oh yeah,” she said. But now, she added, she will keep an eye out for the police.
