It has been a tumultuous and passionate few weeks here in the nation’s capital, so you could be forgiven if you didn’t notice the other day that an autonomous food delivery bot made its first trial run in the District.

Quiet, white, unobtrusive and below the line of sight, it whirred along at about four miles per hour, using nine cameras and a GPS to navigate around obstacles. Most remarkably, it did so on its own? — ?not requiring human assistance.

Seemingly minor, this event did not receive widespread attention. But while the food delivery bots are still in the trial phase, they are part of what many think of as a new era for the delivery sector. This era is marked by autonomous technology? — from autonomous delivery drones to self-driving cars? — ?that some see as a threat to human jobs.

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