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Comment by shonenknifefan1 | Hacker News Reader

I think that if it can carry a water bottle, then it could carry a meal. The dog robots could automate restaurant food delivery for short range delivery in cities. They could possibly even climb stairs to reach walk up apartments.

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In cities like NYC, I don’t think you’d see any buildings accept robots carrying unidentified packages in, at least within the next couple decades. Considering people also still often steal iPhones and other electronics to pawn off, I can imagine this device would be the equivalent of a completely unaccompanied several thousand dollar iPhone on legs to a thief.

Hmm, maybe you could have some anti-theft system if it can detect it's being "kidnapped", by recording video/audio of the thief, and transmitting GPS and phoning a security service. Although I guess you could still capture it by throwing a blanket over it and putting it in a faraday cage.

But you can still detect exactly where it was robbed, and if the robots of each restaurant chain have a distinctive shape people would know it was stolen, reducing the likelihood of reselling it.

Robot chop shops? There might be some value in reselling the batteries alone.

Make it all a custom single piece, so even the battery is no good for anything except for this model of robot.

I am now chillingly reminded of Battle Angel Alita. Also in the live action remake the character called McTeague was a Hunter with robot dogs... this is not a good future.

You could even automate the task with more robots.

It doesn't sound like they're equipped to autonomously navigate long distances. Not sure they understand things like street lights, crosswalks, construction manholes... my impression is they basically just stay "tethered" to your waist via an imaginary leash.

Regarding comments about theft... I think plain old vandalism would also be an issue.

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