A Coco delivery robot turned into an unexpected neighborhood menace in East Hollywood last month, tearing through a residential fence and dragging it down the street before anyone could stop it, according to KTLA.
The autonomous sidewalk robot, operated by Los Angeles-based startup Coco, became tangled in a homeowner’s fence and kept moving, pulling part of the structure and uprooting plants along the way. No injuries were reported, but the damage was significant enough to rattle neighbors.
Homeowner Kaiya Reel told KTLA she heard a noise and went outside to investigate.
“It had got my fence caught up in its wheel. It uprooted a whole bunch of plants in my garden and then just drove away with the fence attached to it,” Reel said.
Reel said she ran after the robot while yelling at it to stop, but it continued moving with part of the fence caught in its wheel.
A neighbor, Roman Henson, described the scene to KTLA.
“I heard this crunching sound and turned around. The robot had driven through the little fence and was dragging it,” Henson said.
Sidewalk delivery robots are increasingly common in Los Angeles and other cities, handling short-distance food and grocery deliveries. They are designed to operate at low speeds and navigate around pedestrians and obstacles.
It is not yet clear what caused the malfunction in this case. The company operating the robot has not publicly detailed what went wrong, but Reel told KTLA that she was told the damage would be reimbursed.
