We know that dogs like to bite the mailman, but what if dogs were the mailman? That’s a new idea proposed by delivery service Continental, who debuted their robodog concept art at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday. Not only would these proposed robotic canines deliver parcels straight to your doorstep, but they’d be deployed by self-driving cars. The proposal is currently called Continental Urban Mobility Experience, or CUbE, and the images look like something straight out of a Black Mirror episode.
But while this idea may sound ridiculous and unnecessary, the dogs were actually conceived for an efficient purpose. They’re designed to increase availability and promote safety measures in package delivery. With the surge of online shopping, CUbE would make it easier and more effective to receive parcels in a timely, accurate fashion.
That’s all swell, but it doesn’t stop the idea from sounding pretty creepy. According to Geek.com, the dogs are “trained” to navigate sidewalks, walk up stairs, and ring doorbells. Remember the mechanical hound in Fahrenheit 451, who hunts and kills fugitives with a procaine-injecting needle that comes out of his nose? Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
Of course, Continental isn’t the first delivery service to deploy robot delivery systems. Segway also debuted new delivery tech at CES this week, and Nuro’s driverless R1 pods are already delivering groceries door-to-door in Arizona. The future is finally here, and it’s robot delivery tech. If the robot revolution ever comes, let’s hope they don’t have our addresses stored.
Images: Continental AGÂ
