Carolyn Marvin blocks Philadelphia delivery robots—and says police ticketed her

Avride wants people to feel comfortable around its delivery robots. Carolyn Marvin wants them to question why the machines belong on public sidewalks at all. In a November 7 Guardian profile, the Philadelphia professor describes a consequence of acting on that objection: police issued her a disorderly-conduct ticket, which she intends to fight.

Marvin, 78, is a semi-retired University of Pennsylvania communications professor. Her protest is straightforward: when she encounters a food-delivery robot and has time, she stands in its path. Guardian writer Arwa Mahdawi accompanied her on one such outing, observing both the machine’s response and the arguments her intervention brought into the street.

A ticket she intends to contest

The police encounter happened weeks before the profile appeared. Marvin told Mahdawi she had been returning from a flu shot when she stopped a robot in a busy area. A crowd gathered. Some people supported her concerns about jobs and hazards for people with mobility issues; others objected that she was preventing a customer from receiving food already paid for.

Three officers arrived after a call about criminal mischief involving a delivery robot. According to Marvin, she refused their request to move, arguing that the First Amendment protected her protest against corporations occupying the same public space. She said officers then handcuffed her and took her to a police car.

Marvin said the resulting disorderly-conduct ticket cited her obstruction of a business. She was still awaiting a court hearing date when the profile was published and planned to contest the charge. Her constitutional argument is the position she intends to advance, not a court ruling resolving the confrontation.

One robot, a sidewalk audience

During Mahdawi’s visit, Marvin waited near robots parked in an alley. After roughly 40 minutes, robot 1617 set off toward a restaurant to collect an order. Marvin followed it to Walnut Street, then stood in its way. The machine repeatedly tried to get around her before appearing to enter hibernation mode.

Passers-by turned the standoff into an impromptu public discussion. An elderly woman thanked Marvin, while other adults voiced support for her objections to automation and the gig economy. Children were often more interested in the robot’s face. Marvin’s protests had already spread widely online; some Philadelphians dressed as her and a robot for Halloween.

Eventually, Marvin stepped aside to go prepare for a class. The robot powered back up and returned to its garage. Her stated goal goes beyond stopping individual orders: she wants residents to recognize that they can challenge private robots’ use of shared streets.

And I think, you know, the question is: who is public infrastructure designed to serve?

Carolyn Marvin, speaking to The Guardian

A friendly face, and a legal foothold

Avride told Mahdawi that humanizing the machines is deliberate: it wants people to feel comfortable rather than frightened by a box moving along the sidewalk. The company said it added zzz graphics after people mistook waiting robots for lost or broken ones. Those concerned emails stopped after the change, according to Avride.

The operator declined to give a Philadelphia fleet count, saying numbers fluctuate with demand. It said it operates almost 1,000 delivery machines across more than 25 college campuses and a growing number of urban locations. The Guardian also notes that Pennsylvania’s Act 106 of 2020 legalized delivery robots and defined them as pedestrians.

Marvin draws a narrower boundary than opposition to all AI or robotics. She told Mahdawi she supports AI’s medical breakthroughs and accepts robots on factory floors. What she rejects is their place in public space—and the idea that residents must accept that deployment as inevitable.