Police Bots Patrol The Streets Of Silicon Valley 24/7

Police brutality might soon be a thing of the past- instead, let us welcome our robot overlords who will most likely be too efficient at oppressing us to even have to resort to physical suppression.

Meet the Knightscope K5 Security Robot, a police-bot that is able to hear, see, feel (will they be reciting poetry?) and even smell. Feeling a bit creeped out yet? Well… at least it can’t taste… yet.

A unit weighs in at 300-pounds, is five feet tall and is driven by the same tech that controls Google’s self-driving cars.

Apparently these bots were constructed to appear “cute and inviting to the public”.

“We’ve had people go up and hug it, and embrace it for whatever reason,” said Stacy Stephens, co-founder of Knightscope, the company which created the namesake robot. Some strange people.

Its primary mode of crime-prevention appears to be deterrence:

“The first thing that’s going to happen is the burglar is going to spot the robot. And unfortunately, criminals are inherently lazy. They’re not looking for something that’s going to be confrontational, they’re looking for something that’s going to be an easy target,” Stacy Stephens told CBS San Francisco.

“They see the robot and maybe they move down to the next place down the street,” she added.

The robot also uses its four senses to continuously collect real-time data, and then processes said data with its predictive analysis engine. It then compares this data with business, government and crowd-sourced data sets to determine if there is a threat in its vicinity. It will then proceed to create a report with an alert level, and send it to the authorities.

These things come with a 360-degree HD, low-light infrared camera and a built-in microphone to “listen” to people around it- so there’s no sneaking up on them.

It also monitors its surroundings for “crime triggers” such as the sound of shattering glass or the screams of person being robbed. Once triggered, it will capture all sorts of data- from geo-tags to photos and videos to licence plates to facial recognition. This data could help police in an investigation.

For now the K5 is confined to malls and office buildings, which utilize its services as a security assistant.

The subjugation of humanity will come at a bargain-basement price tag:

“For your reference, we operate on a Machine-as-a-Service (MaaS) business model and our preliminary pricing for a well-equipped machine is $4,500 per month for 24/7 operations equating to approximately $6.25 per hour (!).” Competitively priced at below minimum wage (!).

Although the company claims that it does not intend to replace cops with this robot, it is likely that far fewer will be “needed” should the bot go mainstream.

The K5 does not take kindly to people who intend to abuse it, and is able to record their behavior, speak with them, and notify the police. For now, it lacks to ability to actually defend itself.

It will, however, remember your face during the robopocalypse.

Sources: Tech Worm

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