People are complaining that the robots were thrust onto the community without any public discourse, and they only learned about it through this Facebook post:
About 11 minutes into the above video of the robots taken by a Paonia resident, the Sheriff arrives to see what is going on. He says he’s never seen or heard anything about the robots, and didn’t know what they were for. The resident said she scanned the QR code on one of them, and it said it was there “to keep the town safe.”
The robots are making some Paonia residents uneasy, though. They have questions about the lack of transparency and public input by town officials before making the choice to use them, and wonder what would happen if they contributed to an accident or injury to a town resident. Some are suspicious that the robots are really collecting data on town residents.
Others feel whatever inspection job the robots are doing could be easily done by existing Public Works employees. One person commented that it would have been cheaper to just hire a blind person with a cane to show officials where they encounter problems with the streets. No one seems to know who authorized use of the robots, and even though citizens have asked about the cost of using them, Paonia town officials have so far not replied to residents inquiring about their cost, but a quick Google search for “Daxbot” shows they were originally designed to deliver items. A website targeted at investors in the Daxbot venture calls them “urban robots” and says they “communicate through nonverbal inflections and emotive expression.” The site says they were designed to be “both functional and personable,” says they can go about 4 mph and displays a graph showing that they can cut the cost of hiring a human for deliveries by about 75%. It also says businesses that use the robots for delivery services pay an average of $2,000/month. But they aren’t being used for that purpose in Paonia.
In any case, some people are starting to have fun with the things, like this guy who is using the robots to help promote his Paonia restaurant, Crunch Waffle:
This was openly discussed in the town meeting, this was the solution to get the Town of Paonia into compliance with the ADA. This was $40,000.00 cheaper than the next bidder, and necessary to get the town into compliance with the Americans with disabilities Act, there was an announcement made (you published it here) and yet the conspiracy theories and theorists have their panties all up in a wad. A phone call to the Town office could have been made, and I’m pretty sure that the Delta County Sheriff’s office has the number to the town office!
None of the people that have so much of their energy caught up in this tempest in a teapot have bothered to come to the town meetings, to watch the town meetings on YouTube, call the town office or ask a town council member what’s up, but they do enjoy the whispering campaign, and doomsday scenarios posting on Facebook, with their ill-fitting tinfoil hats that keep slipping down over their eyes, preventing them from seeing reality at all clearly. I would be willing to bet that none of them can identify any of the town employees, council members or where the town office is without Google Maps or an introduction.
You are no fun at all, Richard!
So if this little gizmo is $40,000 less than its nearest competitor, it’s probably going to be a big cost to the town.
I did some research and saw that municipalities need to report regularly about their ADA compliance. I suppose this robot will generate a report and make recommendations.Then I learned that the town will be applying for a grant. Does this mean Paonia will have the payback added to their property taxes?
I have a better idea. Have CMU engineering students work with high school students to generate the report ( for work-study class credit) and then have the kids from
the Collbran Job Corps help pour the concrete for the ramps. It’s a win-win for the town and the students working on the project.
This seems like a huge hit for such a small town. And because of its size it would make a great pilot project. It’s time to think outside the box…too late, in this case.
Looks like Paonia COULD be a lot more accessible
If townies followed published town news they would have known about the sidewalk measurements. Why would some think they are so important that the robot is collecting information about individuals?
Maybe the town doesn’t have the sheriff’s phone number.
They’re Daleks. We are doomed.