Man with cerebral palsy voices concerns after collision with delivery robot
By Lauren Pozen, Dean Fioresi
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California (KCAL, KCBS) — A West Hollywood man who had a troubling run-in with one of the city’s many delivery robots is raising concerns about the encounter and potential safety and accessibility issues they may present to the public.
The video, which has since gone viral on social media, shows the moments that Mark Chaney-Gay was traveling down the sidewalk on Sept. 13. While he’s keeping his sense of humor about him after the incident, he says there still are some serious accessibility issues that need to be addressed.
“I just went to toe-to-toe with a robot, objectively funny, but also concerning,” he said. “Bumper cars with a robot in 2025, it’s timely.”
He says that he was trying to overtake the Serve Robotics delivery robot, but it continued to cut into his path instead of moving out of the way.
“I tried to go right, it followed me. I tried to then overtake it to the left, and then as I am doing that it cuts me off, almost hits me and then slams on its brakes,” Chaney-Gay recalled.
At that moment, the robot slammed into him and his scooter, jolting him backwards as well. Though he wasn’t injured in the incident, he shared the encounter on social media to help raise awareness.
“If I would have been on my crutches … and it stopped in front of me, I would have fallen,” he said.
CBS News Los Angeles reached out to Serve Robotics for comment, sho said that the robot’s safety system failed, as it was supposed to move out of the pedestrian’s path.
“After examining this incident, we learned that our safety system designed to predict pedestrians’ intentions and cede way to them instead caused the robot to impede their way. Within a few moments the robot came to a full stop, which is considered its fail safe state, to allow other sidewalk users to proceed,” a statement from the company said, in part. “We are designing our robots to not be an impediment to others, in particular those with disabilities, and we regret when we do not live up to our intentions however briefly.”
Chaney-Gay says that the issue goes beyond just improving delivery robots.
“It is a risk and an issue to kind of just say they’re working to make them better,” he said. “They are already on the streets, so they’re already out here doing things and you should be able to account for that.”
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials say that they are aware of the incident but that they are not investigating the matter as no crime occurred.
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