'Emily Ackerman is a grad student at the University of Pittsburgh. One day, Ackerman was crossing the street and was blocked by a Starship food delivery robot in the curb cut of the sidewalk. Both Starship and the University of Pittsburgh agreed to remove the robots for further testing. Since then, the robots have continued testing on campus. This interview was conducted on Monday, December 2nd, 2019. TRANSCRIPT Nick Tommarello (00:08): Move over Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Instacart. A San Francisco-based technology company is delivering a new way to order food and packages at the University of Pittsburgh. But the self-driving cooler-like robots might not be as advanced as they say, at least not yet. Nick Tommarello (00:29): Starship announced back in August that the company has received an additional $40 million in funding and a partnership with the University of Pittsburgh and their food provider, Sodexo. According to the company\'s website, the Starship robots can carry items within a four-mile radius, move at the speed of a pedestrian, and weigh no more than 100 pounds. A grad student from the University of Pittsburgh, Emily Ackerman, understands the possibility delivery robots can bring, but not when they put people in danger. Emily Ackerman (01:07): I was walking towards Schenley Plaza and I was crossing the street with a group of people. When I got into the street, I realized that one of the robots was sitting in the middle of the curb cut. As I got closer to it, it hadn\'t moved at all. Then when I got all the way to it, it was still in the middle of the curb cut. I kind of like wiggled around to the side and it still wasn\'t moving. I was still in the street and the light was coming up so I knew I needed to get out of the street. I kind of panicked and just hopped around onto the curb, like to the side of the curb cut. Nick Tommarello (01:53): Starship released this statement in response, saying that the company is grateful when any potential issues are flagged and challenged Ackerman\'s experience after reviewing footage of the incident, saying that she was able to travel past the robot without stopping. The University of Pittsburgh replied to Ackerman\'s tweet saying that they have paused testing to review the technology further. Since then, the robots have continued testing on Pitt\'s campus. Ackerman hopes that, moving forward, Starship will take time to fix any issues and hire engineers, programmers, and designers in the disability community for businesses that are developing this type of technology. Emily Ackerman (02:34): It\'s a great idea for us and for everyone to have fast delivery in some form, but I don\'t want to be put in danger. The idea that a design team is responsible for coming up with this all-inclusive design, I understand it\'s kind of ridiculous, right? The only way that we\'re going to move towards doing that and being as inclusive as possible is by putting disabled people in the driver\'s seat and really taking that experience into account when we\'re planning and designing new technology. I really implore all companies to hire disabled people to be part of your design teams. Transcript by Rev.com'
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