You would need a whole army of the things in Oxford Street and there wouldn’t be room for the people, but in Japan, the Central Railway Company has commissioned Sizuko Ltd to supply it with an inital two robots – five foot wide, four foot high – programmed to pick up litter and other desiderata (small dogs perhaps) on the platform, the Daily Telegraph reports: the things are said to do the work of at least 10 people and slow down as passengers approach to avoid bumping into them and they also squeal loudly if a giant gaijin looks like stomping on them (though with all those Big Macs they are eating, the average height of younger Japanese is now shooting up); of course the idea will seem old hat to teenagers that have had a robot to pick up after them at home for years – that’s the one they call Mother, of course.
