This is, well, ridiculous.
Last year, you may recall, a Colorado based company launched a 'security robot' (reviewed here).
Now, another company, this time from Silicon Valley, is planning to release one (that the NYTimes says, in a long article, looks like R2D2 and is "the night watchmen of the future").
The company, Knightscope, is an extremely early stage startup who said they launched after Sandy Hook (less than one year ago).
What's particularly crazy is:
- Why the NYTimes is giving such credibility and attention to this company. They don't even seem to have a prototype finished yet and their images are all conceptual drawings. And their video is clearly nonsense, just a marketing person showing concepts of technology after technology:
- The article misses the critical logistical problems of the 'technology'. As we covered in our review of the Colorado security robot, the huge issue is the lack of mobility. These robots need perfectly flat, even, smooth surfaces. Plus, they cannot go too fast, least they knock an innocent bystander over. It's like a security guard in a wheelchair.