You may have met Geoffrey already, an adorable pink robot with hearts for eyes. A chunky, cheery droid who uses the pronouns “they/them” and reminds you to buy local, Geoffrey traverses downtown Toronto offering low-contact, low-cost food delivery at the tap of a smart phone.
How do they do it? In some cases, the answer isn’t local at all: while you may see Geoffrey ambling down your street, their driver might well be based in the Philippines — a 17-hour flight away.
The Canadian brainchild of ex-Uber engineers, Geoffrey is part of a wave of autonomous vehicle innovation that could — quite literally — change the face of the gig economy. For some human delivery couriers, that raises a question now international in scope: what are the implications for workers?
Cute but impractical in the planned urban dystopia of the future where roving gangs of unemployed deliverymen plunder at every opportunity.
