University issues warning for bomb threat involving robots, 'avoid until further notice'

A university within the US has issued a public warning to students on campus to avoid robots over a potential "bomb threat".

That message was rolled out to students on Tuesday by Oregon State University, which took to its dedicated X account to announce an "urgent OSU alert" for students to avoid Starship delivery robots across campus. The institution wrote, "Do not open robots", and to "avoid all robots until further notice". In an update posted to X its revealed that the bomb threat can be traced back to a student that was playing a practical joke, or a prank.

Starship has since responded to the alert by OSU, writing that despite the bomb threat being a joke it has decided to suspend all Starship robots across the campus until further notice as a precautionary measure. Notably, the Starship fleet consists of 20 food delivery robots that have been running across campus since 2020. OSU allows students and faculty to order food via the delivery robots from surrounding restuarants.

"A student at Oregon State University sent a bomb threat, via social media, that involved Starship's robots on the campus. While the student has subsequently stated this is a joke and a prank, Starship suspended the service. Safety is of the utmost importance to Starship and we are cooperating with law enforcement and the university during this investigation," writes Starship on X