Personal delivery device

When states started writing rules for sidewalk delivery robots, they needed a name for them. Most picked “personal delivery device”. It covers the knee-high carts that carry a takeout bag from a restaurant to your door.

The label matters because of what comes with it. Pennsylvania’s 2020 law gives these machines a standing close to that of a person walking. The state transportation department grants the permission to operate, so a city cannot set up its own licence system.

In practice that means a mayor or council has limited room to act. Philadelphia can restrict the robots in places where they create a real safety hazard, but it cannot wave them off the sidewalk altogether.