I’ve never really enjoyed going to the mall and I hate interacting with robots in situations when a person could more quickly or easily address my concern or solve my problem. [related]
So it’s probably a good thing I’ll likely never have to go to Thailand to buy anything. At least one mall there has deployed a fleet of robots aimed at keeping the shopping center safe as the coronavirus outbreak dissipates in that country.
Lisa, Roc, PP, and K9 “act as assistants, thermal scanners and sanitizer distributors” in a mall in Bangkok, which I’m sure is handy for people who need or want to head to their local meccas of commerce and food courts to pick up a specific item rather than click and wait for its delivery.
I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before similar robots are at a mall near me—I might be among the last to know—or even at the front door of my office building when we get the go-ahead to return to Commercial Integrator World Headquarters.
Heck, chances are robots will at the Fenway Park gates to greet me—or, more accurately, creep me the heck out—when fans are allowed inside stadiums again and I’m sure there will be robots where people used to be at airports, hotels and more the next time I travel.
Why Mall Robots Are Inevitable
I understand the reason behind a lot of these droid deployments is safety, especially in a world that’s dealing with a pandemic and continuing to brace for a possible second wave of illnesses and deaths from the coronavirus, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t make me a little uncomfortable.
I’m sure I’ll get used to it and have to deal with it if I hope to go anywhere once the world is reopened from the COVID-19 outbreak but I’d rather not have to talk to a robot or have it follow me around offering me a squirt of hand sanitizer after I finish eating my Fenway Frank.
On that note, how much is an appropriate tip for a squirt of hand sanitizer—and where do I put it? If this quest toward full automation of the world tells me anything, I’ll probably have to break out my credit card or stop by the nearest cryptocurrency ATM to show my gratitude to the bot.
If I had my way, droids would be reserved for the Star Wars saga and other science-fiction movies and they’d stay the heck away from me when I’d rather interact with another person.
