I agree, it seems like this will happen in some closed area for a practical purpose soon, and then slowly expand out to more public areas.

A team with machine learning, computer vision and robotics experience is indeed what we need. People like this are currently in high demand, but there are more people quick to learn who are learning in these areas now.

If speed is an issue and it needs to travel by bike lines and road, perhaps some design based around this this or this will work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPP7StCMYJg http://cdn.ndtv.com/tech/xiaomi_ninebot_mini.jpg http://www.motherearthnews.com/~/media/Images/MEN/Editorial/...