World of the Bizarre

Photo of robot lost in the woods goes viral

By T.K. Randall
May 17, 2022

Image: Leaf Forest (illustrative)
Credit: Den Vish / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) There will come a day when human postal workers will be replaced with automated robots capable of negotiating through busy streets, navigating confusing paths and bringing letters and parcels directly to your door with minimal fuss and bother.

Such a future may be quite a long way off, however, as evidenced by a recent photograph taken by Matthew McCormack who had been cycling through woodland in Northampton at the weekend when he came across what appeared to be a delivery robot that had become completely and utterly lost.

The pint-sized contraption, which typically delivers groceries, seemed to be miles from wherever it was supposed to be and was "ambling on, minding it's own business" along the woodland trail.

McCormack snapped a quick photo and posted it up on Twitter, but was amazed to find the next morning that it had gone viral with more than 240,000 likes, 20,000 retweets and 2,000 replies."People really seem to be connecting with it," he said.

Many social media users saw the funny side, with one suggesting that the robot had "gained sentience" and was on a "mental health walk."

According to Starship Technologies, which operates the robots, this one wasn't lost but was instead on its way to make a delivery to its next customer.

On my bike ride this morning, saw a delivery robot lost in the woods pic.twitter.com/ygiH4Gyrl3

— Matthew McCormack (@historymatt) May 15, 2022

Source: BBC News

Tags: Robot