What Is This Thing Crossing Alpine Avenue?

Last week, it was a monolith on Ottawa Street, this week, it's a rolling refrigerator driving across Alpine. The world is certainly changing.

An apparent delivery robot caught the attention of motorists on the West Side Monday.

What would from the distance appear to be a self driving refrigerator on wheels was identified to be a delivery device sent forth from the Meijer store on Alpine to the Bridge Street Market.

It turns out it's not a refrigerator.

The photo was posted to Facebook, and then shared amongst several different local forums.

While it was easy to identify the 'Bridge Street Market' logo on the side, the store doesn't deliver by robot. Yet.

But the store does have fresh rotisserie chickens brought to it from Meijer via the rolling hot box. One commenter revealed it to be known as the 'Chicken Mobile'.

With Wal-Mrt announcing this week that they have begun using driverless trucks, this is the wave of the future, and the day will soon come when we are no longer wondering what the hell that thing is crossing the street, but we will see them all the time and accept them.

My only question is while I'm sure there is a lock on it to prevent theft of the piping hot chicken, what's to prevent someone from hitting that thing with their car? It seems very vulnerable.

Plus, the poster said the box was so distracting, it almost caused a multi-car accident. That might be hyperbole, but for real, these things could get hacked and go wheeling around the neighborhood flinging chickens at people. (Which to be honest, I wouldn't mind, their rotisserie chicken isn't bad. It's not D&W level, but it ain't bad.)

Some of the other comments to the Facebook post included warnings to learn to adapt, and suggestions on how to make it safer:

They should probably put an orange flag on it. Similar to the style that the sitting bikes use.

 

No way am I goin to be homeless and hungry and a damn cart full of hot chickens goin to pass me while I'm curled up on the sidewalk

 

Expect to see a lot more Autonomous Vehicle's in the future both delivering items, and giving rides around Grand Rapids...

 

I’m guessing if Multiple Self driving delivery robots can maneuver in the streets of New York City, Grand Rapids should be able to handle them. All the more reason to keep eyes on the road.

 

It was in the bike lane the other day on Seward, but going against traffic.