Coral Gables Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson on Tuesday garnered unanimous support to slap down new restrictions on the food-delivery robots she says have overrun sidewalks and caused safety issues for pedestrians.
The restrictions will force the robots, among other things, to move at a maximum of 7 mph on sidewalks, always yield the right of way to pedestrians, and prohibit them from loitering on a public sidewalk, swale or right-of-way for longer than 30 minutes, unless they are in the process of retrieving or delivery food. Commissioners also want to restrict the type of advertisements on the robots and floated the idea of no advertisements at all, an ask the company behind the robots does not seem keen on.
“The biggest issue here is the fact that these robots do not yield to pedestrians. They do not move out of the way of individuals with disabilities,” said Anderson, who has positioned herself as an advocate for accessibility and compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. “They completely block the sidewalk and even when the sidewalk is wider, they straddle the center.”
“These are heavy vehicles. They can knock over a child, and if they’re not yielding to adults, they’re not going to yield to children,” she added. “So we have to work with the technology to see where we can improve it, and as technology improves, we can modify the ordinance accordingly.”
Food delivery robots have popped up across South Florida, including in Coral Gables, Miami and Miami Beach. But the Gables, like other South Florida cities, has limited control over the robots under state law. It can’t ban them or dictate how many of the robots are operating in the city. And the robots, under Florida law, have the same rights as a pedestrian on the sidewalk.
Still, cities are looking for ways to not make the streets a robot free-for-all. Coral Gables is the second city in Miami-Dade to create restrictions for the robots, just after Miami Beach, according to Stephanie Throckmorton, the Gables’ deputy city attorney. The city of Miami is also exploring restrictions.
Anderson said the robots do not move aside for pedestrians on the sidewalk and leave little to no room for people with strollers, walkers and wheelchairs, a problem she describes as being in violation of the ADA. She expressed various concerns, including that a robot may crash into a person or cause them to go off the sidewalk, potentially into traffic.
The restrictions that were approved by Anderson, with the support of Mayor Vince Lago and Commissioners Melissa Castro, Ariel Fernandez and Richard Lara, give Serve Robotics, the company that operates the robots, six months to comply with the new rules.
Yariel Diaz, the director of accessibility for Serve Robotics, called in to the meeting to explain how the robots work. The robots are mostly autonomous but, when in motion, are under the watch of a remote human supervisor through a camera and sensors, in case the person needs to take over, according to Diaz. He said the robots often travel in the middle of the sidewalk because it’s considered the “safest place of travel” to avoid crashing into open car doors and anyone who suddenly “jumps in from the street.”
Anderson found unanimous support among the commission, though Castro and Fernandez noted they would have preferred to defer voting on the matter to a future meeting to give the company time to present the robots and answer more questions. Fernandez also said he’d had a different experience with the robots, explaining that they’ve stopped to let him and other pedestrians cross first.
“This has been postponed enough,” Anderson said at the meeting, explaining that she’s been in discussion with the robot company for months and has not seen improvements.
Anderson initially wanted to cap the robots’ speed on sidewalks to 6 mph, slower than what is allowed by state law and under the company’s preferred speed of 8 mph for operational efficiency. She agreed to cap it at 7 mph upon Lago’s suggestion.
What the food delivery robot company says
Diaz, who is also the director of government relations at Serve Robotics, told the Herald in an email Tuesday that the company has worked with the city since the robots first arrived to the community last year and will “continue working together through the compliance period to deliver safely for local restaurants and residents.”
In response to Anderson’s concern that the robots do not move out of the way for passing pedestrians, Diaz explained that “if it comes into a situation where it is not able to move quickly, it will stop to allow what the next step should be for the remote supervisor to do so” and that it will line up and wait two to three light cycles before crossing a crosswalk to ensure pedestrians cross first.
For a person in a wheelchair, a stopped robot that forces the person to back up on the sidewalk “is not a good option,” Anderson said.
“That’s a barrier to accessibility. It’s clearly in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and it needs to be dealt with,” Anderson added.
Joseph Salzverg, a lobbyist representing Serve Robotics, told commissioners that the Gables is a “priority jurisdiction” and reassured them that the company is willing to work with the city to curb safety and accessibility concerns.
At the same time, he indicated that the company would not be willing to strip itself of its potential advertisement revenue over what he described as “abstract” ad concerns, although he said that the company would not put up inappropriate ads. Diaz told the commission that the only ad that has appeared so far on the robots in the Gables is a sticker of Toothless, the dragon from Disney’s 2025 movie “How to Train Your Dragon,” and that the company is also interested in offering free advertisements for cities and nonprofits.
“These machines are evolving and trying to be more mindful. We know that they are not perfect, but we do hope that you can find a nice balance between access, convenience and efficiency” said José Félix Diaz, a lobbyist who spoke at the meeting on behalf of Serve Robotics.
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