A Police Department Fired a $128K Robot Cop, After It Failed to Catch a Criminal or Issue Any Tickets
A Police Department Fired a $128K Robot Cop, After It Failed to Catch a Criminal or Issue Any Tickets
It seems like every day we’re hearing about A.I. or robots storming into our workplaces and taking over tasks that used to be done by actual people. But not all of this is working. Some of it is a HOT MESS.
A police department in Dublin, Ohio excitedly announced a brand new hire last summer: A $128,000 police safety robot named “DubBot.”
DubBot was equipped with a 360-degree camera and an emergency call button capable of connecting people with an actual officer, and it was dispatched to a few places, like a parking structure, to keep an eye out for problems.
Well, not even a year later, the Dublin PD has FIRED DubBot for being USELESS. DubBot “did not lead to any arrests, criminal cases, or tickets . . . and never identified any incidents requiring a police response.”
So, this week, a spokesperson announced the robot was being returned to the company that produced it. They were originally going to spend $238,000 to have two robots for two years, but they’re backing out. The PD will get a PARTIAL refund, but a year of DubBot will still set them back $68,000.
