Autonomous Food Delivery Robot Malfunctions, Damages Property at Los Angeles Residence

(KTLA) – A woman in Los Angeles has reported an unusual incident involving a Coco food delivery robot that disrupted her garden and ensnared her fence.

Kaiya Reel, who resides in East Hollywood, recounted that she was at home over the weekend when she was alerted by the loud noises coming from outside.

“When I went outside, I discovered the Coco tangled in my garden,” she shared with Nexstar’s KTLA. “It had snagged my fence in its wheel, uprooted several plants, and then continued on its way, dragging the fence along.”

Determined to stop the runaway robot, Reel chased after it, calling out for it to halt.

“I must have looked quite the sight, sprinting down the street and shouting at a robot,” she described.

Reel said the robot didn’t slow down, but rather continued to drag her fencing and palm fronds, which were whipping cars parked along the street. 

“I was trying to block it and get in its way, and it would try to go around me,” Reel added.  

Reel’s neighbor, Roman Henson, said she heard the ordeal as it was occurring.  

“I heard this crunching sound and turned around,” she said. “The robot had driven through the little fence and was dragging it.”  

The pink food delivery robots are a common sight in the neighborhood, residents told KTLA, adding that it’s not unusual for them to be unpredictable.  

“We’ve got the Cocos, the Waymos, and they’re coming for us,” Henson joked, referring to both the delivery robots and the Waymo driverless vehicles often seen on Los Angeles streets.  

But what continues to concern Reel, Henson and others is that this was not the first time there have been problems with food delivery robots. In a separate incident, a Coco robot was caught on camera running into an ambulance, while a robot from another company was seen knocking over a parked motorcycle.  

Even more problematic was the time one of the autonomous robots came to an abrupt stop in front of a man using a mobility scooter.  

“I think the part that worries me is that these companies can come in and dump their technology in our community and there’s no sense of accountability,” Reel said. “It just feels like an accident waiting to happen.”  

The East Hollywood resident said she’s now documenting all the robots in her neighborhood. After reaching out the company that runs the Coco robots, she said she’s also going to get reimbursed for her garden, with a spokesperson telling her that internal measures will be taken to ensure incidents like this do not happen again.  

KTLA reached out to Coco for comment on the incident, but had not yet received a response by Monday morning.