If it all looked a bit ridiculous, that’s because self-driving is still a technology in search of a purpose. With driverless passenger services from the likes of Waymo, Uber and General Motors slow to become realities, the autonomous industry is casting about for practical uses — and hitting upon experiments like food deliveries from cars that make a golf cart seem spacious.
Segways are really neat. They are! And yet... not very useful.
Minor shortcomings combined with people just underestimating the usefulness of an actual human being for doing things like operating a bus or a delivery service mean all these concepts are just not going to economically useful. The problems with the latter are so obvious that I find the whole concept puzzling. America is a wonderful country with a great economy where you can hire a delivery person for peanuts and tips. How important is it to not pay these people? Come on.