College campuses across the country will no longer be swarming with tiny rolling robots.
Starship Technologies, a leading delivery bot company, announced earlier this month that it was ending its university operations and redeploying over a thousand of its meal machines. But the news is just starting to sink in, as various partnered universities all issue official communications mourning the program’s end like obituaries for a celebrity’s passing.
The time has come for the takeout drones to hit the big leagues, as the company intends to focus on doing deliveries for grocery chains and restaurants in cities instead. And shut-in, no-tipping undergrads from coast to coast weep.
And shut-in, no-tipping undergrads from coast to coast weep.
Are you expected to tip the fucking robot?
Would be nice if you could tip the actual cook. Like the food preparation chain is visible on the receipt with boxes for sending a small tip. But only after the meal turned out to be amazing.
But overall it’s cool that delivery robots will probably mean an end to tipping culture.
As long as it doesn’t become expected, but seeing how tips already work, it’ll become expected no matter what. I’d probably see reviews complaining about the food tasting like shit but the reviewer leaving the chef “just the standard 20%” and vowing never to eat from there again.
Why would anyone oppose these bots?
They block sidewalks, they destroy bus stops, they hurt workers
They’re an embodiment of the tragedy of the commons. Businesses glut up the public spaces beyond their intended capacity and for unintended uses, then do or pay nothing for the degradation they cause.