--- title: "Delivery Robot Companies in Trouble as Bot Become Targets for Vandalism" description: "Delivery robots are becoming expensive targets for vandals from Philadelphia to the UK to express their rage." date: "2026-04-02" modified: "2026-04-02" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/delivery-robot-vandalism-problem" categories: - "Robots and Machines" --- # Delivery Robot Companies in Trouble as Bot Become Targets for Vandalism ![Two people are beating a tipped-over pink robot with blue lights on a city sidewalk at night. One person is wearing a black shirt and camouflage pants, while the other is dressed in a black jacket and light-colored pants. The scene is illuminated by streetlights and nearby vehicles.]() *Sigil Kult* When University of California Berkeley allowed the startup Kiwibot to pump its campus full of delivery robots in 2020, their welcome was anything but warm. While some students and staff seemed to appreciate the bots, [plenty more did not](), taking it upon themselves to vandalize, harass, and knock the fellas over at every opportunity. As Kiwibot CEO [Felipe Chavez observed]() at the time, out of the company's first 80,000 deliveries the bots finished on campus, about 1,600 involved incidents of vandalism. At a cost of [$2,500 per Kiwibot](), it's safe to say the damage adds up quick. Now, as thousands more have flooded the streets, sentiments toward delivery robots seem to have changed very little. If anything, they've [only gotten worse](). Over the weekend, two Uber Eats delivery robots in Sheffield, UK suffered some extensive vandalism. Images [shared by the *Star*]() show the pair of bots caked in spray painted graffiti reading "off our streets." "It's a shame to see a few people spoiling things for everyone else and damaging a new service for local people," a spokesperson for the robot's manufacturers, Starship Technologies, told the outlet. "We've reported the incidents to South Yorkshire police, we take this sort of criminal damage very seriously." That comes off the heels of a few incidents across the pond in Philadelphia, one of which involved two men kicking over an [Avride delivery robot]() on the side of the road. Another became a robot humiliation ritual when late night revelers kicked, sat on, humped, and vandalized [a delivery robot]() over St. Patrick's day weekend. In Los Angeles, accounts tied to the influencer collective Sigil Kult [shared clips]() showing them thrash a delivery bot belonging to the company Coco. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUuFEJ4EQe8/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ== Weeks earlier, another Los Angeles man [shared a photo]() of a delivery robot anointed with what appears to be a loaded diaper. "Stumbled across the perfect microcosm of downtown LA today: a high-tech autonomous delivery robot smeared with a pile of feces," he wrote. Examples of petty beatings also abound, like footage from December showing two guys in Leeds, UK tossing a delivery robot [into a bush](), or video of one bot [cracked open]() and left for dead on a Los Angeles sidewalk. As more bots flood city streets across the US and Europe, it seems some are taking an active role in stunting their progress. *Updated to include incidents with a Coco robot in Los Angeles and Avride robot in Philadelphia.* **More on delivery robots:** *[There’s Something Incredibly Weird About Two Delivery Robots Crashing Through Glass Bus Shelter in Chicago Within a Few Days of Each Other]()* ## 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]()