A retired University of Pennsylvania professor is trying to prevent a robot uprising. Officers arrested her after she attempted to block an Uber Eats delivery robot.
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Officers Asked the Retired Professor to Move Away From the Uber Eats Robot "Multiple Times"
The New York Post reports that 78-year-old Carolyn Marvin was arrested in Philadelphia on Wednesday, Oct. 14. Officers alleged she refused to move out of the way of an autonomous delivery robot.
Officers on the scene asked Marvin "multiple times" to move out of the way of the Uber Eats robot. The former professor, who taught a class in freedom of expression, refused. Officers then arrested her and charged her with disorderly conduct.
Marvin Is Waging War Against the Machines
The incident with the Uber Eats robot isn't the first time Marvin has challenged autonomous technology. She claims that she has confronted delivery robots on numerous occasions. Marvin told reporters that businesses are putting workers out of business to "enrich their own bottom line."
"I know they're taking the jobs of human delivery workers, and so, I have been protesting them whenever I saw them by standing in front of them and preventing them from going forward," Marvin added.
Her recent arrest won't stop Marvin from taking down the robots. She also plans to contest the charges against her.
"I think it's my First Amendment right to publicly demonstrate on a sidewalk to protest against delivery robots," she said. "I'm exercising the rights of my citizenship, so I think of it in those terms."
Marvin hopes that by confronting the delivery vehicles, she will encourage people to discuss the future of jobs held by flesh-and-blood people.
"It allows me to talk to people about what's going on," she said. "It's always very interesting conversations that we have, and I think it's good to have those kinds of conversations in public space."
