Robert Bacon
Iowa is joining a growing number of states making it legal to use robots for deliveries in areas where foot traffic is allowed, like sidewalks and crosswalks.
They’re called PDDs — personal delivery devices and under the new law, the maximum speed for a delivery robot is no more than six miles an hour on a sidewalk or pedestrian area.
“If there are no sidewalks, the little PDD can operate on the left side of the road,” Representative Rob Bacon of Slater said during brief House debate of the law.
The delivery robot will be allowed to travel 20 miles an hour on a street, but may only operate on streets with posted speed limits of 40 miles an hour or less. The delivery robots can be no more than 500 pounds — before any cargo is added — and the robots must be operated or supervised remotely by a live person.
Representative Dave Williams of Waterloo said PDDs are being tested in a handful of U.S. cities before delivery robots would see wider use.
“I expect we’ll be back here perfecting this before that happens,” Williams said, “and I hope it happens in Bondurant before anywhere else.”
An Amazon fulfillment center opened in the Des Moines suburb late last year. Amazon’s six-wheeled robot is called Scout. The FedEx delivery robot is called Roxo. The companies envision driving a truck load of personal delivery devices to an area and releasing the robots to travel the final segment of the delivery route.
Iowa cities and counties will not be allowed to impose regulations on delivery robots that are stricter than the new state regulations. Governor Reynolds signed the bill this month and the law goes into effect July 1 2021.