Chicago delivery robot pilot program expansion opposed by majority of Lakeview East residents

People living in Chicago's Lakeview East neighborhood have been at the center of a delivery pilot program, and most of them aren't happy with the robots or in favor of expanding their footprint.

At the height of the weekday lunch rush, you can see delivery robots crisscrossing the streets in the North Side neighborhood. Some residents have welcomed them to the neighborhood as part of an ongoing city pilot program.

Carlotta Trevino is one of them.

"They have more brains than humans," she said. "They stop for you, they move out of the way, they cross with the cross light."

But she may be in the minority. First Ward Ald. Daniel La Spata recently asked for feedback on whether the community would like to see the pilot program expand. He got more than 750 response, the overwhelming majority of which – nearly 84% in fact – said they "strongly disagreed" with sharing the sidewalks with these robots.

That number grew to 91% when totaling responses he received from outside the 1st Ward.

"We hear numbers like what Alderman La Spata is reporting, and it's just further illustrative of what we are hearing and have been hearing of the last few months," said Josh Robertson, organizer of the NoSidewalkBots.org petition.

Robertson started his petition to pause the pilot program with about 3,500 signatures across more than 55 city zip codes.

"The fact that they're taking steps to listen to their constituents shows that this is on the radar, and Chicago voices are being heard," he said.

Employees at one restaurant, who declined being interviewed on camera, did say about 80% of their daily business is takeout or delivery. But they don't control how orders go out; the delivery services assign a human driver or a robot.

Given the results of the 1st Ward survey, robot delivery company Coco said they will "continue to operate within our current footprint."

The company outside Trevino's home, Serve Robotics, said they're currently operating 50 robots around Chicago.

"The only thing that's bad about them is it's taking somebody's job," Trevino said.

The delivery robot pilot program is currently scheduled to run until May 2027. They cannot go past that day without approval from the Chicago City Council.