Pink robots are delivering your food. What does this mean for local gig workers?

Guest: Sara Mojtehedzadeh, work and wealth reporter for the Toronto Star

Robots have arrived in Toronto and they’re delivering your food. You may have come across Geoffrey, an adorable pink robot with hearts for eyes, who offers contactless, affordable delivery at the tap of a smartphone. The company behind Geoffrey is claiming it to be a safe alternative for delivery services that emphasizes buying local just as our reliance on gig workers for delivering our orders has increased. But as Star reporter Sara Mojtehedzadeh found out, sometimes the way Geoffrey is run isn’t local at all and the concept of delivery-by-robot raises some serious questions about implications for gig workers who have already been heavily impacted by this pandemic.