Pedestrian-proximity behaviour of delivery robots: proposed incident types and permit fields

Problem:

Public-area mobile robots (PMRs), such as delivery robots, routinely approach pedestrians very closely — sometimes under a metre — before abruptly swerving aside ("jerk"). Video evidence of this behaviour is abundant. The cause is a too-short planning horizon: the robot reacts to a person at the last moment instead of anticipating/adjusting its path many metres earlier, the way an attentive pedestrian or cyclist naturally does. (There is more to "situational awareness," but that is a key element.)

Startled pedestrians generate complaints. Complaints generate pressure to ban. Several pedestrian-advocacy organizations now campaign for outright bans rather than better behaviour, in part because cities have no vocabulary for demanding better behaviour. Cities including Los Angeles, San Jose, Miami, and Chicago already manage sidewalk robots through MDS — so a handle on this is already important.

What cities need:

1. A way to name the expected behaviour in a permit — e.g., "begin lateral adjustment well before encountering an object (e.g., pedestrian); maintain a stated minimum passing clearance; avoid sudden last-moment swerves near people." In more technical terms, this is called meso-planning and can be defined to suit a city’s preference.

2. A way to see it in data — so a city can verify the behaviour it is asking for is the behaviour delivered.

Proposal for discussion (candidate for 2.1.0 planning)

• New incident/event types in the delivery-robots mode, e.g.: close_pass (passing a person below a city-declared “shy-distance”), sudden_swerve (heading change beyond a threshold within a defined distance of a person, “jerk”), near_miss (proximity event meeting city-defined criteria).

• A Policy object through which a city declares the thresholds those events reference — minimum passing clearance, advance-adjustment distance. Threshold values would be set by each city; MDS supplies the fields.

• Optionally, a permit-level attestation field: the operator attests, per vehicle type, that pedestrian-proximity behaviour meets a test or certification named/accepted by the city.

No files or tests are named. Start by reviewing the delivery-robots mode and the existing incident/event, Policy, and permit structures, then compare the proposal with 2.1.0 planning. Done means the event types, city-defined thresholds, and optional attestation field have an agreed specification and scope.