Woman Run Down by Delivery Robot on College Campus

The company offered *promo codes* as consolation.

Bot Belligerence

Beware those little delivery robots you see tooling around college campuses. They may be small, but they can still knock you on your ass.

As 404 Media reports, a woman working at Arizona State University learned this the hard way, after one of these things apparently went haywire and struck her last September, injuring her in the process.

According to a police report 404 obtained via public record request, the employee was waiting for the Starship robot to drive past her so she could cross the sidewalk near a parking garage. After it did, she started walking. But all of a sudden, the robot "abruptly" went into reverse and rammed into her, sending her to the ground. As it drove away, it actually went into reverse again and almost repeated the collision.

To add insult to injury, the company tried to make it up to the victim by offering her promo codes for its food delivery service — which sounds sort of like getting bit by a stranger's dog and being given the chance to pet it as consolation.

Road Rage

This may not sound like a huge deal, but a bad fall is no joke. An officer who responded to the incident said that the victim was visibly hurt and "complained of lower back pain," per 404. She was also treated for a four-inch gash on her left arm and had difficulty walking away.

It's unclear how old the victim was, but you can imagine that if this happened to an elderly person, it could've easily been even more injurious, if not deadly.

The victim's version of events is corroborated by video footage obtained by police, who note that there didn't appear to be any cause for the Starship bot's behavior. "I observed when the unmanned vehicle changed direction the second time when it struck [the employee], there was not a vehicle attempting to enter the garage or any other thing appearing to be in front of it," a police officer wrote.

To top things off, the delivery bot almost ran into the "path of a vehicle attempting to enter the parking garage," while leaving.

Business As Usual

404 notes some of Starship's — the company's — shady practices. As part of its takeover of college campuses in recent years, it's instructed campus cops to make it the first point of contact so it can "lead" investigations into any incidents. The site also uncovered a report that detailed how Starship initially decided not to prosecute drunk students who returned one of its bots undamaged after taking it into their room, allegedly as a joke. Nine days later, it went back on its word and provided evidence for police to arrest two of them on felony theft charges.

After this latest fiasco, a Starship employee asked the police for the victim's contact info so they could offer insurance information and promo codes.

In a statement, the company said it couldn't comment on why the robot suddenly changed direction and backed into the woman.

"We are aware of a situation over a year ago where a robot came into contact with a pedestrian at extremely low speed after detecting an oncoming vehicle," a Starship spokesperson told 404. "Safety is our number one priority, we take every incident seriously, the case was thoroughly investigated at the time."

More on robots: Chinese Company Busted Showing Off Humanoid Robots That Actually Have Humans Inside