Kevin Chicago’s sidewalk delivery robots had a rough week in late March 2026. Two separate robots, operated by two different companies, crashed into CTA bus shelters just days apart, shattering glass panels and reigniting a fierce debate about whether these machines belong on city sidewalks at all.
- Two delivery robots crashed into two bus shelters in Chicago within days, starting with a Serve Robotics robot that hit a CTA bus shelter at Grand and Racine, shattering the glass.
- The second crash involved a Coco Robotics robot that shattered glass at a bus shelter near North Avenue and Halsted Street.
- Both Serve and Coco said they will pay for repairs and are looking into what caused the robots to get off track.
Two Crashes, Two Companies, One Wild Week
The first crash happened when a Serve Robotics device collided with a bus shelter in the West Town neighborhood. The West Town crash happened Sunday morning, according to Bayard Elfvin, the CEO of local construction company Centre Construction Group, which has offices nearby. Security footage shows the robot rolling right into the side panel of the shelter, which shattered and showered glass onto the robot and the surrounding sidewalk. The aftermath of the first incident was caught on a video that has gone viral on Reddit, X and other platforms.
For the second time in a week, a self-driving food delivery robot crashed into a CTA bus shelter, this time when a Coco robot collided with the glass at a bus shelter at the intersection of North Avenue and Larrabee Street in Old Town. A nearby barbershop owner told CBS they heard a loud noise, looked out, and saw the wrecked robot.
Thankfully, nobody was injured in either incident. But the back-to-back collisions sent a clear message to critics who’ve been questioning the program from the start.
What the Companies Had to Say
Both robotics firms moved quickly to respond. Serve said it was aware of the incident and that its team responded quickly to clean up the area, adding that it was reviewing what happened to make improvements.
Coco called the Old Town bus stop collision a “rare, isolated incident” and said it has opened an internal investigation into how it occurred. The company noted that across over 1 million miles of total trips, this was the first time one of its robots had collided with a structure, and that its robots have a top speed of about 5 miles per hour.
City agencies said they are in contact with both companies to better understand what led to the incidents, and both Serve and Coco worked directly with JCDecaux, the multinational French corporation that maintains Chicago’s bus shelters, to have the sites cleaned and glass replaced.
Growing Pushback on Sidewalk Robots
These crashes didn’t happen in a vacuum. For over a year, robots have been using Chicago sidewalks to pick up food orders in certain neighborhoods under a pilot program approved in 2022. Coco first came to the city in late 2024, while Serve rolled out its robots in September 2025. There are currently 100 delivery robots up and running in the city.
The program was already controversial well before any glass got shattered. The delivery robots had proven divisive, leading to one Lincoln Park neighbor starting an online petition calling on the city to pause the robot delivery program until more data is shared and a public hearing is held. So far, the petition has collected about 3,700 signatures.
Alderman Daniel La Spata wasn’t happy about the incidents, saying “Two in seven days is not great.” He added that the case continues to be made that it’s hard for this technology to operate safely in the city of Chicago, and noted his constituents in a survey overwhelmingly opposed expanding the devices in his ward.
Kyle Lucas of the pedestrian advocacy group Better Streets Chicago said the collisions are a sign the robots “should be sent packing.” Whether you’re in Chicago dealing with robots on your sidewalk or living in a smaller community like Madison, IN, the conversation around autonomous delivery is one worth paying attention to, as these pilot programs could expand to cities of all sizes.
These bus shelter crashes are the latest incidents in a shaky rollout for delivery robots across the country. Images and videos shared on social media show robots from various brands getting lost, bumping into things, and struggling to cross streets, including one viral video showing a Coco unit getting submerged in flood water in Los Angeles.
Can Robots and Pedestrians Coexist on City Sidewalks?
The pilot program, managed by the Chicago Department of Transportation and the city’s Business Affairs and Consumer Protection office, won’t continue past May 2027 without City Council approval. That means there’s a built-in deadline for the city to decide whether these robots have earned a permanent spot on Chicago sidewalks.
The bus shelter crashes came less than two weeks after Coco announced it would begin using a new Visual Positioning System provided by Niantic Spatial to improve its robotic navigation accuracy, using data intended to help robots determine their location by analyzing surrounding images. Whether that upgrade could have prevented these collisions remains unclear.
For now, the robots are still rolling. But with two shattered bus shelters, a growing petition, and increasingly vocal residents and city leaders, the window for these companies to prove their technology is sidewalk-ready is closing fast. If more incidents pile up between now and May 2027, the City Council’s decision might end up being a pretty easy one.
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