Delivery Robot Expansion Stalled by Fragmented State Regulations

State legislatures remain deeply divided over how to regulate sidewalk delivery robots, creating a fragmented legal landscape that complicates national expansion for technology developers.

In Georgia, robots weighing up to 500 pounds can travel at speeds of up to 4 miles per hour on sidewalks under state law. New Hampshire permits speeds of up to 10 miles per hour but caps robot weight at 80 pounds. As of the end of 2022, at least 23 states had enacted some form of legislation governing how these delivery robots can transport goods within their borders, according to data from the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center and Supply Chain Dive research.

State-by-State Patchwork Creates Hurdles

The proliferation of state laws has been a double-edged sword for delivery bot developers. While companies can influence legislation at the ground floor, the patchwork nature of these rules has made nationwide deployment a complex endeavor.

"It is going to be a nightmare to get all the states on the same page — there is massive variation," said Ritukar Vijay, CEO and co-founder of delivery bot company Ottonomy.

Delivery Bots Invade Statehouses

While no state outright bans delivery bots, tech developers have adopted a cautious expansion strategy rather than flooding the market and risking public backlash.

"We don't do the 'ask for forgiveness rather than permission' approach," said Serve Robotics CEO and co-founder Ali Kashani, noting how rapid e-scooter expansion eventually soured public sentiment.

Legislation has often been shaped with the guiding hand of delivery bot operators. Starship Technologies, which partners with Grubhub to deploy sidewalk bots on college campuses, worked with lawmakers to advance bills in Virginia, Idaho, Wisconsin, and other states.

State legislatures don't always side with business interests, requiring bot developers to remain actively engaged in the political process. Starship Technologies CEO Alastair Westgarth said the company has seen proposed bills that, despite intentions to ensure safe rollout, would have ultimately hindered delivery service.

Ultimately, companies must balance business objectives with safety concerns. That approach has helped Starship create value for both customers and the communities its bots operate in, Westgarth added.

Political engagement also gives businesses an edge in ensuring their designs can be deployed smoothly. Variance in state laws often depends on which bot operator led the charge to pass a particular bill, said Carl Hansen, vice president and head of government relations at delivery bot company Coco.

Starship's legislative work in 2017 and 2018, for example, was tailored to its robot's characteristics, which can hold around 20 pounds of goods. Then, Amazon and FedEx pushed for legislation in 2019 and 2020 that catered to their specific bots' use cases, Hansen said. FedEx's Roxo bot, which the company canceled to prioritize nearer-term goals, had 100 pounds of capacity.

In some state legislatures, companies have faced stiffer resistance. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed a 2022 bill that would have established rules for delivery bots on sidewalks. She said in an explanation of the veto that lawmakers still needed to address safety concerns, such as clarifying minimum liability provisions and enforcement oversight. There was no motion to reconsider the bill, which also raised concerns about courier job security.

Despite opposition, legislation for sidewalk-traveling delivery bots has gained clear momentum across statehouses. The push to regulate bot deployment is relatively recent — all bills signed into law were introduced in 2017 or later.

"They'll keep popping up," Tom Holland, a Kansas state senator who opposed the bill, said of new delivery bot legislation.

A Tough Transition from Statehouses to Sidewalks

Regulatory approval doesn't guarantee a smooth rollout. Operators and regulators have learned hard lessons through various tests, some conducted after laws were enacted.

Pennsylvania signed delivery bot legislation into law in 2020, and the state's transportation department authorized Kiwibot to make deliveries in 2021. The company made deliveries in Pittsburgh between September and December of that year as part of the Urbanism Next Center's Knight Autonomous Vehicle Initiative, a $5.25-million effort to help cities develop a people-centered approach to the technology.

Through the pilot, the bots made deliveries for a food truck, a pharmacy, and a library in Pittsburgh's Bloomfield neighborhood, per a report from the center. But the robots quickly ran into issues, unable to overcome cracked sidewalks or obstructions like overgrown trees.

In total, Kiwibot completed four deliveries to customers and 972 simulated deliveries through the pilot. The company ultimately decided against a rollout in the neighborhood due to "infrastructure challenges," the report said.

In Detroit, where Kiwibot also tested robot delivery in partnership with the Knight AV initiative, a local restaurant had issues getting staff trained on the technology, said Tim Slusser, director of mobility innovation for the city.

By the time restaurant employees were familiar with the delivery bots, the business encountered staffing challenges and returned to standard systems to minimize disruptions. The pilot then moved to a second local restaurant, but that presented its own issues — namely a lack of customer engagement.

"Candidly, I believe it was just a little bit [of] a lack of awareness from the consumers that this was even an option," Slusser said. "So what we ended up doing is working with the Kiwibot team to help them simulate as many runs as possible from different places that those restaurants typically have it delivered to."

Kiwibot made only 12 customer deliveries as part of the Detroit test, but Slusser said the city has since become better prepared for new bot initiatives, such as Starship's deployment on Wayne State University's campus.

Experts say more pilot programs like those in Pittsburgh and Detroit will be necessary to weed out potential implementation issues.

"It's not a technology issue in many ways," said Karen Lightman, executive director of Metro21 at Carnegie Mellon University, a research and implementation lab for smart cities. "It's often the application, the human side and the policy side where it gets complicated and a little messy."

News Graphics Developer Jasmine Ye Han and Visuals Editor Shaun Lucas also contributed to this story.

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the first name of Starship Technologies CEO Alastair Westgarth.