{"id":50021,"date":"2023-01-08T12:00:21","date_gmt":"2023-01-08T12:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/63d57743-6e35-41f0-b423-b0188f10b0cf"},"modified":"2023-01-08T12:00:21","modified_gmt":"2023-01-08T12:00:21","slug":"one-of-americas-most-hated-companies-hired-a-security-robot-it-didnt-go-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/one-of-americas-most-hated-companies-hired-a-security-robot-it-didnt-go-well\/","title":{"rendered":"One of America’s most hated companies hired a security robot. It didn’t go well"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Knightscope\"<\/picture><\/div>\n

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Annoying the neighbors?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Can a robot<\/a> bring you peace of mind?<\/p>\n

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Special Feature<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

This has, for some time, been a conundrum that’s wafted around my inner workings.<\/p>\n

If robots are so clever — and some surely are — they can protect us from all sorts of nefarious threats and intrusions. From other robots, for example.<\/p>\n

So when I first heard that a company called Knightscope had created security robots that patrolled buildings, I was unnaturally moved.<\/p>\n

How would the local, inferior humans react? I learned this quickly when a human was accused of assaulting one of these things<\/a> at the company’s own offices in Mountain View, California.<\/p>\n

Yet I continued to get emails from the company, as its business apparently flourished. Even when one of its security robots fell into a shopping mall fountain<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Recently, though, I heard that a local company — one at which many customers are irate<\/a> — had hired one of Knightscope’s rolling software sheriffs.<\/p>\n

California utility PG&E has become notorious for its arrogant, monopolistic<\/a> attitude and its role in devastating fires. In 2020, its CEO stood and pleaded guilty<\/a> to 84 cases of involuntary manslaughter during the Camp Fire in northern California.<\/p>\n

So I wasn’t entirely surprised when PG&E decided to employ an autonomous security robot<\/a> at its 19th and Folson Street yard in San Francisco and locals were less than entertained.<\/p>\n

One resident told Mission Local: “People without homes have used these sidewalks for a while now, and the robot annoys the hell out of anyone trying to do as much as just stand here.”<\/p>\n

Then there was the noise. A fine human security guard knows how to walk quietly. The Knightscope robot, however, makes surreal, spacey sounds, as if it’s auditioning for Doctor Who.<\/p>\n