A 78-year-old professor plants herself in front of delivery robots

single source· 1 articles · confidence: low · first seen 2026-11-07 14:00 UTC

What this means for you

Nothing to act on. The piece covers one resident's protest and supplies no deployment counts, operator names or regulatory dates, so there is nothing to size or plan around — only an illustration that pavement robots meet resistance at eye level.

Carolyn Marvin, a 78-year-old semi-retired professor in Philadelphia, has become a local figure by standing in front of food delivery robots on the city's pavements, and says protesting them is her First Amendment right. The Guardian's interactive feature follows her on one such outing, with a lookout posted for police. It gives no figures for how many robots operate in the city, which company runs them, or whether any rule has followed; the dispute it documents is between a resident and machines sharing pedestrian space.

Key facts

  • ·Carolyn Marvin, the subject of the piece, is 78 years old. source
  • ·She is described as a semi-retired professor living in Philadelphia. source
  • ·Her method is to stand in front of a delivery robot on a busy sidewalk and block its way. source
  • ·She says protesting the robots is her First Amendment right. source
  • ·The article was published on 7 November 2026 as an interactive feature. source

What the sources say

  • The Guardian AI — Profile of a Philadelphia resident who obstructs pavement delivery machines, with no deployment data.

Sources

The original reporting. Follow these — they did the work.

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