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Comment by mlyle | Hacker News Reader

Standing in the sidewalk, and refusing to get out of the way of another sidewalk user.

I mean, I could block a wheelchair user by standing in a cut-out, too. Is that OK?

A wheelchair user is a person. Uber’s property is not.

If an empty self-driving wheelchair were on its way to pick up its owner, would it be OK for a pedestrian to block its way?

There are no self-driving wheelchairs, let alone ones driving outside.

And in what world is it possibly driving around empty? Where's the owner, crawling around on the floor for fun?

There may be no self-driving wheelchairs today, but they will probably exist in a year or two. If/when they do exist, and a self-driving wheelchair were returning to its owner's home after being repaired or tuned up, would it be OK for a pedestrian to block its path, since it's not human nor currently carrying a human?

No there won’t be. They have vans that drop them off for people already.

And just to humor your ridiculous argument: yes it’s okay to do that. Stop wasting the little space there actually is for pedestrians with this unnecessary garbage.

It might be immoral, but certainly not illegal. But, what if the person it was driving to was planning to use it to commit crimes?! Then would it be okay?

And what if Superman was needed to save the world but he was immobilised by a chunk of kryptonite and this selfish protester was blocking the self-motorised claw machine that he’d reprogram (well, his agents would reprogram) into an improvised kryptonite removing device?

They're both classified as pedestrians under Pennsylvania law.

Just because something is physically on the sidewalk doesn't mean it is a "sidewalk user".

If you ask me that thing is an autonomous motor vehicle, and as such belongs on the road and its use of the sidewalk is illegal. Just like it would be if its larger Waymo cousin tried to drive there.

Besides, that robot is also blocking and refusing to go out of the way of the human. There are no laws regulating who has to yield on a sidewalk, so good luck figuring our which one is in the wrong.

Wrong. https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/75/00.001.00...

> "Pedestrian." Any of the following:

(1) An individual afoot.

(2) An individual with a mobility-related disability on a self-propelled wheelchair or an electrical mobility device operated by and designated for the exclusive use of an individual with a mobility-related disability.

(3) A personal delivery device.

And California has a law declaring that bees are fish.

Just because you legislate something doesn't make it true, and the law can be changed at any time.

It makes it true in court, which is the only thing that matters for this discussion.

You learn something new every day.

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