In a growing number of U.S. cities, small sidewalk robots are rolling meals from restaurants to customers—no driver required.

Courtney doesn’t have eyes, but it’s got sensors everywhere. There are two blinking lights on the front of its boxy body to approximate wide, moony pupils. It’s been described as a “large cooler on ...

Making robots more human may turn out to be a costly mistake, not because the technology fails, but because it ignores the people it's meant to help.