A Los Angeles crime scene that has been roped off has been cheerfully rammed by a food delivery robot on camera. In a video that has gone viral on Twitter and Reddit, the robot doesn’t appear to mind the glances that the officers give it.
A Serve Robotics model referred to as a “next-generation robotic fleet,” is seen in the video appearing to approach the police barrier. To allow the robot to pass through the crime scene and move on to its next delivery, a friendly human lowers the tape.
Using “multiple sensor modalities – active sensors like lidar and ultrasonics, as well as passive sensors like cameras – to navigate safely on busy city sidewalks,” Serve Robotics boasts that its newest generation of robots is “able to operate routinely without human intervention, and can rely on their onboard capabilities to ensure safe operation.”
If the above video is any indication, the zero-emission robots just haven’t mastered crime scenes yet.
On the other side of the law, the police have recently used robots with even worse outcomes.
In California, a public park was patrolled by a “RoboCop” in 2019. On June 18, RoboCop started his relentless quest for criminal activity by patrolling public spaces. RoboCop was eventually put to the test in October when a brawl broke out in Salt Lake Park’s parking lot in the heart of Los Angeles, according to NBC News. Cogo Guebara, a witness, noticed the altercation and ran to the robot with the word “POLICE” printed across it, asking for assistance.
She anticipated the robot would call the police for assistance when she hit the emergency alert button. Not at all. It instructed her to move aside instead.
Guebara claimed at the time, “I was pushing the button but it said, ‘step out of the way.'” “It simply kept ringing and ringing, and I kept pushing and pushing.”
RoboCop continued on its pre-planned patrol path while another witness, Rudy Espericuta, dialed 911 on his phone the old-fashioned way. RoboCop occasionally stopped to remind visitors to “keep the park tidy.”
