Takeaway services are now essential to the functioning of our cities, but delivery riders face low pay, job insecurity, and hazardous working conditions. Food-delivery platforms prioritise efficiency over riders' well-being, resulting in a substantial power and information imbalance, which create the conditions for further exploitation. Taking a rider’s perspective, this project explores the emotive experience of takeaway riders on the streets of London via machine learning-driven video and image analysis. The team worked further on two separate design proposals.

The Dignity Project proposes an ethical navigational platform that replaces the shorter path algorithm used by the ubiquitous Google Maps with an emotional health algorithm, driving the riders through the ‘happier route’ to the destination. The proposed navigation platform is further expanded by a dynamic network of shelters that provide resting and communal areas for the drivers.