Bicyclist to Sue After Crash With Robot That Allegedly Tried to Flee

A New Jersey man plans to sue Uber and an autonomous vehicle company after crashing into a self-driving robot while riding his bike home from work late last year.

Conor Shannon, of Jersey City, said the robot developed by Avride unexpectedly darted into a bike lane on Varick Street as he rode home at about 5 p.m. on October 22, 2025. The crash sent the 32-year-old flying over his bike’s handlebars and onto his head and neck, leaving him with a concussion and a broken clavicle. The robot then attempted to flee the scene, he said.

“Suddenly, an object about the size of a Coleman cooler-maybe a little bigger-appeared right in front of me,” Shannon told Newsweek. “Next thing I know, I was unconscious, and when I came to, I was getting helped into an ambulance.”

Shannon, who works as an actuary, said his memory of the immediate aftermath remains foggy, but he continues to recover from the crash more than six months later. In addition to uneasy hours in the hospital, he missed several days at work, and his clavicle hasn’t fully healed.

“I’ve done a lot of reflecting,” Shannon said of spending countless hours in his apartment replaying the crash. “These things have been around Jersey City for a while now. I’ve actually never had one deliver to me, but I didn’t think anything of them at the time.”

Uber did not return multiple messages seeking comment from Newsweek regarding Shannon’s accident in October.

In October 2024, Uber announced a partnership with Avride to use the company’s delivery robots and autonomous vehicles, later deploying them in Dallas and Austin, Texas. The service subsequently extended to Jersey City in February 2025 and Philadelphia in March.

“We are aware of the incident involving a cyclist and one of our delivery robots that took place in October 2025,” an Avride spokesperson told Newsweek in a statement. “While we cannot provide comment as this is an active legal matter, we look forward to the resolution of this case through the proper channels.”

Avride did not respond to inquiries about the number of delivery robots it operates nationwide or its plans to expand to other cities, but insisted that the four-wheeled “state-of-the-art” devices, with a top speed of 5 mph, can safely navigate around pedestrians, sidewalks and crosswalks thanks to multiple sensors.

“We can reaffirm that our fleet is programmed to operate in strict accordance with traffic laws and safety regulations,” Avride’s spokesperson said. “We sincerely value the safety of the community.”

The fully autonomous, 33-inch-tall robots designed to serve as reliable couriers for local businesses can hold up to 6 pizzas and multiple bottles of soda in all weather conditions, including rain or snow, with a range of 31 miles on a single charge, according to Avride’s website.

“I have been designed with a strong focus on ensuring safe and efficient delivery,” the site says. “Among my advantages, I feature a 360-view sensor set, a reliable compute unit, and an optimized energy consumption system. All this contributes to my ability to navigate complex environments and adapt to various situations.”

A three-layered sensor system also means that “collisions with people and obstacles are out of the question,” Avride says.

Shannon's attorney, Adam Lederman, has yet to file the lawsuit as of early Friday, but intends to “very soon,” he said. He accused Avride of using municipalities like Jersey City to fully optimize the performance of its growing network of robots.

“They’re beta testing in the real world,” Lederman told Newsweek. “They’re telling whoever is making the decision to put them on the road that they’re safe, but they’re learning on the job. And I have a feeling that once I file suit and get discovery, I’m going to find that they’re going to admit it - that they need the public and real-life to get them enough data to make them safer.”

Residents of Jersey City and other municipalities served by Avride’s collaboration with Uber, like Shannon, have become “unwitting subjects of this,” Lederman said, adding that the incident appears to be the first reported crash involving a delivery robot in New Jersey.

Other similar incidents have recently been reported in Philadelphia, where an Avride robot collided with a truck on Wednesday. The machine, which suffered a damaged wheel, entered a crosswalk against a stop signal just prior to the fender bender, WTXF reported.

An AI-powered machine developed by Serve Robotics also crashed into glass at a bus stop in Chicago in late March. No injuries were reported, but the company dismissed the incident as an anomaly.

“Our local team proceeded to clean up the area as soon as we learned about the incident and immediately started an investigation into how this happened,” Serve Robotics previously told CBS News in a statement. “Incidents like this are extremely rare, with our robots completing hundreds of thousands of deliveries since 2025 without a single serious incident. We are in touch with the relevant parties and will cover the cost of the repair.”

Shannon, meanwhile, said he hasn’t noticed a reduction in the number of Avride robots on Jersey City streets since his calamitous crash. But he’s thankful for the kind bystander who blocked the robot as it tried to scurry away afterward.

“These things are obviously very dangerous,” he said. “It’s six months later and I’m still trying to get back to normal.”

Shannon also advised residents of any city where autonomous robots roam to closely monitor their surroundings before they’re potentially impacted themselves.

“There’s still a lot of issues with these robots and it’s just kind of scary having gone through this,” he said. “My warning to people is if their city is planning on rolling these out, try to fight it.”

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This story was originally published May 15, 2026 at 10:35 AM.