Citizens across the nation have reported strange figures on city sidewalks. They’re white, short, and inhuman.
But this unidentified rolling object comes in peace. His name is Dax, and he’s here to help.
This summer saw the curbside debut of the Daxbot in cities around the US, developed by an Oregon-based robotics firm for the purpose of improving city sidewalks.
Moving at walking pace, they continuously perform surveys of the sidewalk level, measuring gradients, width, and vertical changes—the kinds of things that would be done by a surveyor crew. The data is packaged up and forwarded to city planners for the purpose of more easily triaging which sidewalks are more urgently in need of repair.
So far, ‘Dax’ is on the ground in Bangor, Maine; Hoboken, New Jersey; Hollister, California; Tyler, Texas; and Hilton Head, South Carolina.
It might seem like a niche job, but as a report on the Daxbot’s work in Tyler published in Straight Arrow News outlines, conditions on a black asphalt roadway under a July sun in Texas are harsh and unforgiving. Finding surveyors to work under these conditions is difficult.
In cities like Hoboken and Tyler, authorities are setting goals of zero pedestrian traffic deaths, and well-maintained level sidewalks are considered an important part of achieving them. For strollers, bikes, kick scooters, or skateboards, the old tree root that uplifts the sidewalk isn’t just an impediment, but a gentle, subconscious suggestion to move off the sidewalk and onto the road.
Though hardly a death sentence, being that much closer to moving cars is that much closer to danger. Indeed, 9 in 10 pedestrian traffic deaths will occur on the road surface, not the sidewalk. As if city planners needed anymore data to convince them using Daxbots is a good idea, one unit in Tyler was hit on a crosswalk by a truck making a right turn.
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“Hoboken has become a national model for street safety because we’ve consistently invested in making our streets work better for everyone,” the city’s Mayor Emily Jabbour said.
“By combining innovative technology like Daxbot with feedback from residents and guidance from accessibility advocates, we’ll better understand where improvements are needed…”
Bangor plans to use 6 of the robots, which stand 35 inches tall and will wear hi-visibility jackets. They will cover about 6 miles of sidewalks a day.
Straight Arrow News heard from a Daxbot company spokesperson who explained that the robot, reminiscent of Pixar’s WALL-E, was first tested by delivering pizzas. It was a city planner who called one day, asking if it could survey sidewalks, that set Daxbot on the path it’s on today.
More children, seeing the robots almost inevitably offers a moment of joy and wonderment, and several cities encourage residents to take selfies or photos of the robot and post them on social media, tagging official accounts.
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