Mike Baylous and Katie Matison were quoted in a June 19 Bloomberg BNA article titled “Delivery Robots Rolling Into Regulatory Thicket.” The article discusses the potential regulatory hurdles and how they are beginning to be addressed at the city and state levels.
“It’s quite possible there will be a patchwork across the country,” Katie Matison, a shareholder and transportation attorney at Lane Powell in Seattle, said. If there is a matter of local public interest, municipalities can prevent delivery robots from operating at certain speeds, in certain areas, or otherwise restrict what they are doing, she said.
To be sure, not everyone thinks a raft of differing regulations would be a burden. Varying city laws could present “new opportunities for competition and diversification,” Michael B. Baylous, a shareholder and transportation attorney at Lane Powell in Anchorage, Alaska, said.
The interview for this article inspired the Transportation team to author the recent Legal Alert on Autonomous Delivery Robots.