A food delivery robot on campus. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
The Lantern has retracted a story about campus robots delivering food to students cold, which was published to the website Monday. We learned the reporter fabricated and falsified information and quotes in this story. This type of inaccuracy does not represent The Lantern, and the story was removed as a result.
The retracted story stated the food robots were designed to operate in warmer climates, contributing to the technology’s unpreparedness for delivering food during Ohio winters. This is not correct.
According to emails to the reporter from Yulia Shveyko, head of media relations for Yandex Self-Driving Group, which The Lantern obtained, the robots were developed and operated in Russia in late 2020 during the winter.
The story falsely stated the robots were developed to operate in the warm weather at Arizona State. This is not correct. While the University of Arizona was given as an example by Shveyko of where the robots are also delivering orders, they were not designed specifically to meet the needs of that climate.
Along with operating in cold weather conditions, the robots were designed to maintain proper temperature in hot climates as well. According to the emails from Shveyko, Yandex is developing a universal solution for the robots to work in various types of climates.
The Lantern regrets these errors and seeks to uphold the highest standards of fairness and accuracy in its reporting.
