Autonomous pavement delivery robots — small GPS-guided vehicles used to transport food and groceries — are facing a mounting backlash across the US and UK, with residents, local councils, and labour groups pushing back against their rapid and largely unannounced expansion. In Chicago, a resident campaign has gathered over 4,400 signatures calling for a suspension of the robots pending safety reviews, citing incidents of pedestrians being forced into the street, collisions, and robots blocking emergency vehicles; meanwhile, the city of Glendale, California is weighing a temporary ban after councillors say operators deployed the machines on public pavements without seeking permission. In the UK, some Uber Eats robots have been vandalised in Sheffield, and a trade union representing delivery drivers has warned that a wider rollout could devastate precarious workers in cities like London — even as industry analysts forecast as many as 2.1 million such robots operating globally by 2034.