
How Knightscope’s Security Robots Surveil the Public - tosh
https://onezero.medium.com/heres-how-knightscope-s-security-robots-surveil-the-public-c2c6d14ee2c2
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paulgerhardt
Knightscope is worth a close study. If they were a consumer facing startup, PR
blunders would have forced them to close years ago. Yes, one of their machines
ran over a small child[1]. Yes, they had a disastrous “mini-ipo”[2]. Yes,
they’re frequently a “look how dumb AI is” counter point to the Boston
Dynamics machines[3].

But they’re not consumer facing. They found a market niche as a punching bag
for municipal and local spaces (malls, libraries, subways) who treat the users
of public space as hostile adversaries.

If dunking on Knightscope worked, they would have been done in already. If one
is anti this kind of approach to civic management it’s important to name the
community “leaders” advocating for them, the social economics that render
$7/hour Knightscope rental more viable than more empathetic solutions, and the
investors supporting these dark patterns.

[1] [https://www.theverge.com/2016/7/13/12170640/mall-security-
ro...](https://www.theverge.com/2016/7/13/12170640/mall-security-
robot-k5-knocks-down-toddler) [2]
[https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1600983/000114420417...](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1600983/000114420417043992/v473642_253g2.htm)
[3] [https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/17/20697540/boston-
dynamics-...](https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/17/20697540/boston-dynamics-
robots-commercial-real-world-business-spot-on-sale)

~~~
swimfar
I believe that it was actually the kid that ran into the robot. But I can't
find any followup articles about the incident, only initial reports.

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deogeo
Imagine the reverse. Point your phone camera at a security robot, and get a
list of names, faces, addresses, and current location of its owner, and the
CEO and board members of its manufacturer.

~~~
stevenicr
Think I read the DJI is making thier next gen of drones to auto spew this kind
of info a certain distance from each flying drone, so that anyone with a DJI
app can pull the info if they are X amount of feet from it when in use.. or
something like that.

Long ago I posted the need for a 'Made where app' that would let you point
your phone at products and get a list of where it's it made and components
came from, not sure if something like that has come to be yet, I do not
experiment with many apps from the play store as I find the lack of
transparency about data sharing off putting.

~~~
deogeo
Sounds like the worst of both worlds. If you, a random citizen, buy
robots/drones/computers, they will betray you ( _you_ , not their manufacturer
or its owners), but this functionality will be disabled for corporate clients.

Very useful if you fly a drone over an industrial farm to document how they're
polluting the local stream - they'll have your home address and send the cops
to seize the footage (and all your computers) within the hour.

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avmich
How come so many articles on HN are behind registerwall? Can we maintain a
reasonable discussion when the subject material is unavailable to a large part
of the forum?

~~~
mandelbrotwurst
This seems to be a trend that is happening on the web broadly. Fresh sessions
and cookie removal can be helpful.

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gorgoiler
Police robots are the ultimate rejection of what the British police hold as
the Peelian principles: that policing is done by consent, by all members of
the public where no one is better than anyone else, and where some of those
members of the public — uniformed police officers with warrant cards to
facilitate arrest — happen to be salaried full time employees of the state
that perform the duties every citizen should do.

But I’ve also never interacted with a Knightscope enforcement droid. Maybe
they have a friendly green button on the front that you press to talk to a
rational human?

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles)

~~~
smabie
Like the CCTV cameras that infest London?

~~~
gorgoiler
The municipal ones are indeed objectionable.

Most CCTV in the UK is privately owned though, which is where all the
scaremongering “UK CCTV distopia!” statistics come from.

I don’t fear despotism from an isolated system in a corner shop.

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wibble10
Facial recognition cctv, the other day some protesters in South America shot
down a drone using lasers, and now this? Clearly the precursor to Ed-209. The
future is here I guess. Is it what we wanted?

~~~
yorwba
> the other day some protesters in South America shot down a drone using
> lasers

They did not; they pointed lasers at a drone while it landed.

[https://mobile.twitter.com/matiasojedam/status/1194665625278...](https://mobile.twitter.com/matiasojedam/status/1194665625278468096)

