Rogue bot

Robots taking over human jobs is becoming untenable to some people.

A retired university professor in Philadelphia has taken up the cudgels for delivery workers who are being replaced by robots. Carolyn Marvin, 78, blocked the path of a robot cart delivering an Uber Eats order on a city sidewalk on 14 October, New York Post reports.

Police pleaded with Marvin to move away and let the machine go. But she refused, forcing the police to arrest her and charge her with disorderly conduct.

Marvin is contesting the charge, telling WPVI-TV, “I think it’s my First Amendment right to publicly demonstrate on a sidewalk to protest against delivery robots.”

Meanwhile, police in Cologne, Germany have seized a robot for lewd behavior.

The seizure by North Rhine Westphalia Police officers was in response to a complaint by a 16-year-old girl who said the four-foot-tall machine grabbed her buttocks and made thrusting motions against her, BBC reports.

The incident happened in front of a fastfood outlet while the victim was with her friends close to midnight on 10 October, according to BBC, citing a police statement posted on Facebook.

Police later arrested a 16-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man suspected of operating the robot one block away from the crime scene.

The mobile phones of the two suspects were confiscated and were being examined to see if they were used to control the robot’s movements at the time of the incident.