JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI (KMOX) - A bill was introduced to the House Emerging Issues Committee on Tuesday to consider whether to allow delivery robots on sidewalks in Missouri.
Similar legislation never made it out of committee last year due to the pandemic, but state Rep. Travis FItzwater (R-Holts Summit) decided to bring it up again, as House Bill 592.
Rep. Tracy McCreery of St. Louis expressed concerns about having robots running about, "If they can go up to a max of 10-miles per hour and they weigh several hundred pounds, the impact that could cause to someone healthy is one thing, but we have several folks in our community that struggle with their abilities."
A case was cited of a college student in a wheelchair who encountered a delivery robot and couldn't get around it. The robot would not yield, and the student struggled to get out of the way.
Henrio Thelemaque, a lobbyist representing FedEx, said their robots are in constant surveillance by an operator.
Related
"We've had millions of hours of rolling time on our robot, and we've been able to see that having an operator there at any time allows us to not only traverse new terrain, but to effectively communicate with anybody around us," Thelemaque says.
Rep. Fitzwater says the bill would permit local governments to ban the 'bots if they so choose, and would have a statewide standard on liability insurance of $100,000. Otherwise, the robots could travel on any public sidewalk, crosswalk or roadway providing it does not interfere with motor vehicle traffic, or block a public right-of-way.
He says there are 15 other states with robot laws, most recently South Carolina, and the delivery 'bots are the way of the future. He noted the pandemic has seen a major surge in at-home deliveries, to the point where there weren't enough human delivery people to keep up. He expects having robots make deliveries would expand job opportunities, not replace people.
The committee took no action other than completing the public hearing as required. No robots took part in the meeting.
© 2020 KMOX (Entercom). All rights reserved.