Robots on the Brick Sidewalks of Old Town Alexandria, Virginia
A fifteen-minute ride from DC on the Blue or Yellow Metro rail lines, Old Town Alexandria has a storied and diverse landscape. Its central hub is the intersection of North Washington Street and King Street – populated by Murphy’s Irish Pub, the Light Horse, a Lululemon, H&M, Anthropologie . . . a convergence of unique shops and restaurants, and national brands that brings in a walking crowd year-round.
I’ve been a pedestrian frequenting these establishments for about 14 years, so I’ve witnessed its character evolve. A significant part of that evolution involves the rough brick sidewalks that have been a feature of the place since forever. The sidewalks are rough because the ground underneath those bricks is ever-changing. Tree roots push up the bricks, time wears the bricks down, and nature takes its toll. No one should wander these sidewalks without appreciating the uneven surfaces created by these bricks.
Old Town’s guardians include the merchants who maintain a presence there and the City Council and City Manager. Historic preservation is clearly an important consideration throughout the spectrum of stakeholders.
Recently the trend has been to accept the challenges presented by a range of users of these sidewalks. The city amended its laws to permit bicycle riders to use the sidewalks – apparently a nod to the biker community and its influence on city government. Early on it embraced the proliferation of motorized scooters, whose fans include many who disregard sidewalk restrictions and use the scooters on the sidewalks. Both bikes and scooters share a common thread – they put pedestrians at risk of collision and personal injury.
I speak from experience, having twice been hit by scooter operators on sidewalks, both in the District and in Old Town. And toward the end of 2025 the city introduced a new threat to Old Town shoppers.
As I approached the Metro bus station at N. Washington Street and King Street, a robotic vehicle entered the sidewalk, blocking my way to the bus stop. There was no warning, no noise, just a movable mass operating well below eye level, entering the sidewalk and maintaining a path that offered no hint of where it was heading or when it would stop to allow pedestrians to use these cobbled sidewalks.
Reporting for ALXnow, an online newsletter, James Cullum wrote in an article dated December 12, 2025, that the purpose of these robots was to permit Uber Eats to partner with Serve Robotics. Quoting Aaron Emrich, Global Head of Autonomous Delivery at Uber, Cullum reported that the goal of this collaboration was to “enable more consumers to experience the convenience and novelty of robot-powered delivery, while helping merchants serve their customers in new ways.”
If you’re familiar with the state of Old Town’s sidewalks, you would likely appreciate the danger posed by the unpredictable movement of a traveling metal and plastic box that looks like a large Coleman cooler with painted-on eyes. The idea of meals on wheels might make sense at a college campus where the customers are inclined to indulge in cool forms of customer service. From what I can see thus far, however, the sidewalks in Old Town simply are not able to safely accommodate robotic food delivery services.
Much as I admire the work of the City Council and its Manager, I regret their decision to permit robotic food delivery services on the brick-cobbled sidewalks in Old Town.
Cullum quoted Ali Kashani, CEO and co-founder of Serve Robotics, as describing this recent collaboration as “a landmark step toward enabling scalable, sustainable last-mile logistics in historically rich, pedestrian-oriented cities.” Through Cullum’s reporting we have been put on notice that Serve Robotics expects a deployment of 2,000 robots in locations including Old Town, Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, and Chicago. As Elmont Atlee commented in ALXnow following Cullum’s reporting, “more repurposing narrow sidewalks for activities never intended, collisions will be inevitable.”