Bizarre Glitch Sends Delivery Robots Swarming Chicago Sidewalks

When you’re out for a morning jog in Chicago’s Lincoln Park, you expect birds, fresh air, maybe a coffee run. What you didn’t expect was a slow‑moving parade of humming delivery bots, lights blinking like tiny traffic cones, all stuck together on the same narrow stretch of sidewalk.

The scene was captured by local runner Becca Ostein, who posted the footage on Instagram. In the video, about a dozen robots from the startup Coco crawl, wobble, and occasionally veer, creating a makeshift obstacle course. One unit drifts off into the distance, but it’s hard to tell whether it’s trying to escape or join the jam.

Ostein wrote in her caption that the “run route was crowded this morning.” In the comments, viewers quickly voiced frustration—one user, who identified as a disabled person, called the incident a “nightmare.” The consensus was clear: without a human’s agile footwork, navigating that bottleneck was near‑impossible.

According to CBS News, Ostein told reporters the robots seemed to have nowhere to go, literally swarming the walkway. The glitch appeared to be a software hiccup that made the bots lose coordination, causing them to bunch up instead of dispersing.

Coco responded in a statement posted under the Instagram clip, apologizing for the mishap. “That’s not how our robots are designed to operate,” the company said. They added that their team cleared the blockage within minutes and promised to prevent a repeat.

The incident adds to a growing list of headaches the robots have caused in the Windy City. Earlier this year, similar bots were blamed for minor accidents and even collided with a bus stop, prompting city officials to create a temporary exclusion zone that bars the devices from a certain downtown stretch.

While autonomous delivery promises faster meals and less traffic, real‑world teething problems like this remind us that the technology is still learning to live alongside pedestrians. For now, Chicago’s sidewalks remain a testing ground, and residents will likely keep an eye out for any future robot traffic jams.