A video shows a food-delivery robot scooting its way under police tape and into a crime scene

• A video posted online shows a robot courier moving under police tape and into an active crime scene.
• The robot passes by the media before scooting by a crowd of police officers, who look on, amused.
• "It's so funny looking at the cops looking at that thing," someone can be heard saying in the video.

Caution tape doesn't always mean much to robots, it turns out.

Footage posted online Tuesday shows a food-delivery robot crossing underneath police tape in Los Angeles and into a crime scene. It's unclear what company the robotic courier belongs to or if it was completing a test run or active delivery to a customer. 

The two videos posted show the robot approaching the first line of caution tape, where it appears journalists are positioned to cover the active crime scene. A cameraman is seen looking on, amused, while another lifts up the caution tape to allow the robot to pass under it.

—Film The Police LA (@FilmThePoliceLA) September 13, 2022

 

After the courier crosses the street, a crowd of law enforcement officers can be seen watching the robot.

"It's so funny looking at the cops looking at that thing," someone can be heard saying on the video. Another posits the question of if there was a bomb in the robot, which there did not appear to be.

The last video shows the courier scooting away from the crime scene along the sidewalk.

As food-delivery apps have grown in popularity in recent years, so have robotic couriers, which are outfitted with compartments for delivering food to customers. Some of the biggest players in the autonomous-delivery market include Starship Technologies, and Uber said in May that it would start piloting delivery food to customers' homes using robots in Los Angeles.

However, the jury's still out on how people will adapt to robots shuffling along next to them on city sidewalks. Starship Technologies co-founder Ahti Heinla told Insider in 2018 that some people were kicking the company's robots.

"Some people pass our robot and kick the robot a little bit," Heinla said in mid-2018. "That's not really a problem I think, if people have such anger management techniques that's fine by us, our robot just drives on."