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Robots have taken over the streets of Pleasanton, but not in an apocalyptic fashion.
According to the city, small Daxbot robots are roaming the sidewalks and streets of Pleasanton, collecting information about the city’s accessibility and the conditions of sidewalks. A Daxbot was spotted on the north end of downtown Tuesday morning, including rolling across Main Street against a red light at one point.
In a July 24 social media post, the city stated these assessments will help improve these pedestrian facilities and make Pleasanton more compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“The robots will travel at walking speed along pedestrian pathways, collecting information on sidewalks and trails, curb ramps, signalized intersections, and transit stops,” according to the social media post. “The assessment is part of the City’s ADA Self-Evaluation and Transition Plan and will help identify accessibility barriers and inform future improvements throughout Pleasanton.”
Daxbots, according to the company’s website, are robots that gather accessibility data on public rights-of-way within city limits. Other cities throughout the country have been deploying these robots for similar purposes.
According to the Daxbot website, Pleasanton is specifically working with Kimley-Horn, an engineering consultant based in San Jose, to collect the data. The measurements, according to the website, will then be used to “create a map of sidewalk conditions to help keep pedestrian pathways within the City of Pleasanton accessible and safe.”
“Dax robots move at walking speed down pedestrian pathways taking accessibility measurements and keeping human crews out of traffic,” according to the Daxbot website. “As they move, they capture data for sidewalks/trails, curb ramps, signalized intersections, and transit stops.”
Once one of the robots finishes assessing an area, it will go into “snooze mode” to upload data and wait to be picked up.
And while some might be worried about these robots collecting information that doesn’t have to do with roads and sidewalks, both the city and the company said that shouldn’t be a concern for residents.
“The robots are designed for shared public spaces, and data collection is limited to pedestrian infrastructure,” the city stated in its July 24 post. “They do not store personal information.”
The company also stated that they robots are not taking away any human jobs, they are just collecting information in a more efficient manner.
“A robot can measure up to 8 miles of sidewalk per day, compared with about 2 miles per day for a two-person manual crew, and it collects continuous measurements rather than measuring at intervals every several feet,” the company stated. “This gives cities faster, more actionable data.”
According to the city, the robots are expected to assess roughly 360 miles of sidewalks and trails across the city.
The Pleasanton Weekly has inquired with the city about the cost of the robots and when the robots are expected to be done with their assessments but has not heard back as of time of publication.
