Retired University of Pennsylvania professor arrested for blocking delivery robot to prot…

A 78-year-old retired University of Pennsylvania professor was arrested in Philadelphia after repeatedly obstructing an Uber Eats delivery robot to protest automation replacing human workers.

Carolyn Marvin, a professor emeritus at the university's Annenberg School for Communication, was arrested on Oct. 14 near Reading Terminal Market after ignoring repeated police orders to step aside and allow the robot to pass.

Police responded to reports of a disturbance involving a delivery robot on Filbert Street. Marvin was issued a criminal violation notice for disorderly conduct.

The confrontation, captured on video, drew mixed reactions online. "Some heroines don’t wear capes," one commenter wrote as quoted by the New York Post, while another said, "Should have destroyed the robot." Others criticized her actions, with one calling her a "Robotic Karen."

Marvin said she had been deliberately blocking delivery robots for months because she believes companies are using automation to replace human delivery workers. "I know they're taking the jobs of human delivery workers and so, I have been protesting them whenever I saw them by standing in front of them and preventing them from going forward," she told Action News.

She argued that her protests were protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. Asked whether she would continue protesting despite her arrest, she said: "I do. Why not? I think it's my First Amendment right to publicly demonstrate on a sidewalk to protest against delivery robots."

Marvin previously taught a course on the history and theory of freedom of expression, examining the relationship between speech and action, according to The Daily Pennsylvania. In a statement to the student newspaper, she criticized corporations for replacing delivery workers with machines to increase profits.

"I oppose ruthless corporations casting aside human workers they don’t want to pay — in this case delivery folks at the bottom of the wage pile — to enrich their bottom line," she said. "These real people are workers with no defense against these corporations except our care for their situation."

She also raised concerns about robots collecting personal information and urged consumers to support delivery services that employ human workers. The autonomous robots, developed by technology company Avride, began making Uber Eats deliveries in Philadelphia in March.

She told news outlet PhillyVoice that she planned to contest the disorderly conduct allegation on First Amendment grounds and said she hoped her protests would encourage public discussion about automation and its impact on employment.