During what must have looked like a scene from iRobot, in Mountain View, California, a remote controlled robot, with a human face displayed on an LCD panel, stood in line at a coffee shop, ordered a scone, received it and left a tip. Most people’s reaction was to simply record the event on their cellphones but what would you have done?
I’d have done the same thing. Having said that, considering all the laws regarding money in the USA, where you cannot mail money for instance, it strikes me as odd that a robot was allowed to carry, let alone spend, currency. Also, sending a robot to buy, even a horribly overpriced 5$ coffee is one thing, I wouldn’t have sent it to say, Best Buy to purchase me a 3D 60″ LED flatscreen worth 2000$…
Is this a precursor of things to come? Will we one day, just like they did in iRobot (and Bicentennial Man, and A.I.) send robots to run our errands? Will the UPS, Fed-Ex and the dreadfully slow DHL delivery men be replaced by robots? Perhaps Diesel powered robots in the case of DHL? Maybe.
For now that particular robot wasn’t so much a robot as it was mostly, a remote controlled Segway with an LCD panel on it. Still one thing is for sure. I want one!
What laws against using currency? You can mail money, it’s just risky to mail cash as it may be lost or stolen. Banks have to report withdrawals over $10,000 but I don’t know of any other laws or restrictions against carrying or spending money.