Ex-Professor Arrested for Blocking Delivery Robot in Philadelphia

A retired University of Pennsylvania professor was arrested Wednesday in Philadelphia after she repeatedly blocked an Uber Eats delivery robot, protesting that the machines are taking jobs from human workers.

Carolyn Marvin, 78, was charged with disorderly conduct after refusing to move from the path of the autonomous food delivery bot. Authorities asked her multiple times to let the machine pass, but she remained in place.

Marvin stated that she has been protesting the delivery robots for months, believing that corporations are using them to replace human delivery workers to increase their profits. "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," she told WPVI-TV.

Marvin, who previously taught a class on freedom of expression at Penn, indicated that this was not her first confrontation with the delivery bots. She plans to contest the charges, asserting her right as a citizen to protest on public sidewalks. "I'm exercising the rights of my citizenship, so I think of it in those terms," she said.

The incident has drawn mixed reactions online, with some praising Marvin as a "heroine" and others criticizing her actions. The robots, manufactured by tech company Avride, began making Uber Eats deliveries in Philadelphia in March.

Marvin expressed her intention to continue her protests against the robots, hoping to spark public discussion about the future of human employment in the face of advancing automation. "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."