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Boston Dynamics robot spot: technology that interests the police
Photo: Yoshio Tsunoda / imago images
The New York police justify themselves online for using a new type of robot.
The model called the spot, a four-legged robot from the Boston Dynamics company, was filmed in the Bronx.
The clip landed on YouTube via the FreedomNewsTV channel.
There, users commented on the video with sentences such as “More than scary” or “They will arm him next”.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) responded via Twitter to the skepticism that the robots were exposed to.
"The NYPD has been using robots since the 1970s," it says, "to save lives in hostage situations and dangerous goods incidents." The spot is currently being tested to compare its capabilities with other models.
The robots are net heroes
Many Boston Dynamics robots are web stars, so to speak.
Videos on the performance of the spot have gone around the world in the past through social networks and media, including a comparatively recent clip in which he cleans up, opens doors and pots plants.
A few days ago, a copy of the Spot, unit price around $ 75,000, hit the headlines because artists had equipped it with a paintball gun.
Boston Dynamics publicly distanced itself from this video streaming campaign.
They condemn the display of their technology "in a way that encourages violence, harm and intimidation," said the company.
It was obviously about a break-in
According to FreedomNewsTV, the spot was used in the Bronx after an armed burglary.
The police did not know whether there was still a suspect at the scene, they say.
The New York Post reports that an NYPD spokeswoman said the robot was equipped with lights and cameras.
In this way, he enables the police to see his surroundings in real time, so to speak.
Criticism of the use of the robot also came from the Democratic Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
She pointed out on Twitter that surveillance robots are now being used in low-income areas with underserved schools where people of color live.
"Please ask yourself," she continued, "When was the last time you saw the next generation of world-class technology for education, healthcare, housing and so on consistently prioritized for underserved areas like this?"
The New York Post points out in its article that it was not the first time that the New York police had their robot dog to support them.
A similar deployment was documented in October, back in Brooklyn.
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