--- title: "Delivery Robot Dogpiled on the Streets of Philly" description: "One little bot learned the tagline \"city of brotherly love\" only applies to humans, not food delivery robots." date: "2026-03-19" modified: "2026-03-19" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/delivery-robot-philadelphia" categories: - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" --- # Delivery Robot Dogpiled on the Streets of Philly ![A small white delivery robot with four wheels and a digital face displaying two triangular eyes is navigating a city sidewalk at night. The robot has "AVRIDE" written on its side and a small antenna. People are heckling it.]() *Hugh Dillon* It's tough to be a robot on the mean streets of Philadelphia. Infamous for brutally destroying an [experimental hitchhiking robot]() in 2015, residents in the city of brotherly love are now sharing their sidewalks with a new kind of pedestrian: delivery robots. A video recorded by Philadelphia street photographer Hugh Dillon late Saturday night shows that the city's reputation as a haven for robophobia hasn't improved much over the years. In the 30 second clip, the little bot is kicked, sat on, laughed at, and even humped by a crowd of onlookers as it prattles along to its destination. After escaping the crowd's wrath, the robot ambles over past Dillon, who's able to get a clear shot of graffiti reading "DESTROY ME PLZ" scrawled on its plastic chassis. "Honestly thought it was done for," [Dillon wrote]() in the video caption. "One wanted to throw it, another sat on it. another person wrote destroy me on it... Then it calmly rolled on its merry way." https://www.instagram.com/p/DV43Z5ikTsw/ Another video [shared on Instagram](), presumably taken at an earlier point, shows the same bot rumbling along to deliver some food with the same graffiti scribbled on its exterior. "He doesn't even know where the f\*\*\* he's going bro," a Philly resident hollers after the robot. "F\*\*\*ing re\*\*\*d." "ROB HIM OF HIS COPPER IMMEDIATELY," another enterprising Philadelphian commented. The robots come courtesy of a partnership between Uber and robotics company Avride. According to [local reporting](), each autonomous delivery vehicle has a one to two mile radius, and a maximum speed of five miles per hour. Similar robotics companies have already worn out their welcome in other US cities like Los Angeles and Chicago, as their delivery bots [hog sidewalks](), [injure residents](), and [rampage through gardens](). Compared to those cities, the gadgets are relatively new to the 215 — but given the city's [infamously short fuse](), you can bet the good people of Philly are just getting warmed up. **More on delivery robots:** *[Large Area of Chicago Bans Delivery Robots After Resident Outcry]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()