A 78-year-old retired University of Pennsylvania professor was arrested Wednesday in Philadelphia after blocking the path of an autonomous Uber Eats delivery robot, officials said. Carolyn Marvin was charged with disorderly conduct after refusing repeated requests from police to move aside, according to local reports.

Marvin has actively protested delivery robots for several months, arguing that automated technology threatens jobs held by human workers. She stated that corporations deploying these machines prioritize profit at the expense of employment opportunities for flesh-and-blood delivery personnel.

“I know they’re taking the jobs of human delivery workers, and so I have been protesting them whenever I saw them by standing in front of them and preventing them from going forward,” Marvin said. She described her actions as a form of peaceful demonstration meant to draw attention to the economic impact of robotic delivery systems.

Having previously taught a course on freedom of expression at the University of Pennsylvania, Marvin maintains that her protests fall under her constitutional rights. She plans to contest the disorderly conduct charge and emphasized the issue as a broader matter of citizen rights. “I think it’s my First Amendment right to publicly demonstrate on a sidewalk to protest against delivery robots,” she told a local news outlet.

Philadelphia police officials indicated they asked Marvin multiple times to clear the robot's path before placing her under arrest. The incident highlights ongoing tensions surrounding the integration of automation technologies into everyday urban environments and their effects on labor markets. Marvin's case reflects a growing debate over the balance between technological innovation and job preservation.