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Robots have taken over the streets of Pleasanton, but not in an apocalyptic fashion.
Small Daxbot robots began roaming the sidewalks and streets of Pleasanton this week, collecting information about the city’s accessibility and the conditions of sidewalks. A Daxbot was spotted on the north end of downtown Tuesday morning, including rolling across Main Street against a red light at one point.
Sharon Petrehn, a public information officer and principal analyst for the city of Pleasanton, told the Weekly on Wednesday morning that the robots were first deployed on Monday as part of a “Public Right-of-Way (PROW) Survey” – which is part of the city’s larger ADA Self-Evaluation and Transition Plan.
That plan, according to a July 24 social media post by the city, aims to “identify accessibility barriers and inform future improvements throughout Pleasanton”.
“The City of Pleasanton is committed to ensuring that its facilities are accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990,” Petrehn said. “As part of this commitment, the City is conducting a self-evaluation of public facilities, including City facilities, parks, parking lots, and the public right-of-way (streets, intersections, sidewalks, and access ramps).”
Daxbots, according to the company’s website, are robots that gather accessibility data on public rights-of-way within city limits. Other cities throughout the country have been deploying these robots for similar purposes.
The data, according to the website, will then be used to “create a map of sidewalk conditions to help keep pedestrian pathways within the City of Pleasanton accessible and safe”.
“Dax robots move at walking speed down pedestrian pathways taking accessibility measurements and keeping human crews out of traffic,” according to the Daxbot website. “As they move, they capture data for sidewalks/trails, curb ramps, signalized intersections, and transit stops.”
Once one of the robots finishes assessing an area, it will go into “snooze mode” to upload data and wait to be picked up.
And while some might be worried about these robots collecting information that doesn’t have to do with roads and sidewalks, both the city and the company said that shouldn’t be a concern for residents.
“The robots are designed for shared public spaces, and data collection is limited to pedestrian infrastructure,” the city stated in its July 24 post. “They do not store personal information.”
The company also stated that they robots are not taking away any human jobs, they are just collecting information in a more efficient manner.
“A robot can measure up to 8 miles of sidewalk per day, compared with about 2 miles per day for a two-person manual crew, and it collects continuous measurements rather than measuring at intervals every several feet,” the company stated. “This gives cities faster, more actionable data.”
According to Petrehn, the Daxbot team arrived in Pleasanton on Monday (Sept. 14) to begin setting up the robots and run tests and configurations. She said the robots have now been in the community for the last couple of days and have surveyed 13 miles as of Wednesday. The robots will be surveying a total of 360 miles across the city.
Petrehn said the total cost of the Self-Evaluation and Transition Plan is $252,000 and that the cost for the survey, which includes the use of the robots, is half of the total project cost. She said the work is funded through the city’s general fund.
This robot is needed on Foothill Road between Muirwood Drive South and Oak Creek Drive between 8:00 am & 9:00 am and 3:00 pm & 4:00 pm, and between Muirwood Drive South & West Los Positas times. It will most likely be involved in a collision.