NYPD Deploys “Creepy” New Robot Dog in Manhattan Public Housing Complex | Hacker News Reader

NYPD Deploys “Creepy” New Robot Dog in Manhattan Public Housing Complex

gothamist.com

22 pointsdecebalus124 comments

Kind of sad to see the funny dancing dog robot video and then its first application for police surveillance...

From the video in the article, it looks like the dog was deployed just to help make an arrest. Article is worded to imply the dog is in those projects permanently “surveilling” but there’s no facts to back that up.

How could it possibly have helped arrest someone? Seems like it's being deployed as a chilling effect on residents.

Here’s one possibility:

Suspect is presumed to be armed and violent. A robot with cameras is sent into his apartment to scout instead of risking an officers life.

I meant in this case. The article implies the human police deescalated the situation. A robot dog wouldn't make this any easier, and seems more likely to escalate the situation.

Send a disposable non-lethal robot in first so that any misunderstanding or ambush leads to a broken robot, and not dead residents or police.

They said it was there as backup. So they said well, maybe we will want to send the dog in to look, we will bring it in case. Then they got there and started talking to the guy, probably behind a door since they said he was barricaded. He eventually responded to that. So the guy didn't really get to use the robot.

They didn't necessarily know they would be able to get into the apartment or room or communicate with him. The dog is just a mobile camera that is more expendable than sending in a person to scout out a situation.

Even if it were just for an arrest it is covered in cameras

It seems that way, but it could be an improvement for all parties. If police can avoid putting themselves into high stakes face-to-face situations, the less civilians and police will die from misunderstanding or ambush. Non-lethal robots are disposable.

That optimistic of you. Now you have a robot that can't be reasoned with pushing it's way into people's homes, and police with guns defending the robot against the populace.

Are you in the least bit surprised?

When it comes to drone surveillance, I have to admit I don't really worry much about an obvious, can't-miss-it, machine on the ground. It's just a continuation of previous robots used in bomb disposal and negotiation, at least until armed.

Something small enough to sneak in somewhere is more of a privacy concern, and those can't be more than a couple decades away.

I have seen lots of tiny drones in the news over the years.

Impossible to count on any media outlet to give it to you straight anymore. This article is clearly designed to leave the reader believing that there are robot dogs patrolling the projects, oppressing their residents. They can’t lie outright in their articles, but they will try their best to mislead readers believing the lie they want to push regardless.

That doesn't strike me as outrageously misleading, merely prescient.

What exactly is the lie?

>”It’s alarming to see them roll out these props from a bad Black Mirror episode”

Wow, talk about shots fired at Black Mirror’s production value and storylines over the seasons.

It could have been really spooky.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wcFODj0uRKQ

Minority Report (2002)

Quiet prescient, wasn't it?

... Why again wasn't that worth a comment months ago?

https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Nypd+robot

Next up: Weaponized drones ...

It's not "creepy". This is misleading.

It'll look as normal as a car or a mechanical digger or a drone or a camera.

No one is going to see it and think creepy. Any other 'emotions' will normalise quickly to neutral.

It’s creepy to those who have previously viewed the Black Mirror episode titled “Metalhead”

Exactly, movies and books fool the brain.

The feelings you feel have nothing to do with real life when you have all the senses, including proper visual. Just like the 2D uncanny valley pictures of robots aren't real in 3D ( good money as an artist if you could do a 3D uncanny valley )

'Metalhead' in real life would just be about stress and other common emotions.

Check out Screamers (1996) if you like Metalheads

This seems like a lot of alarmism without concrete arguments as to why the robot dog is problematic. It also seems like an honest article should make a better attempt to represent the benefits or uses of such a device.

Maybe $70K can be better spent on fixing the officers' failure-prone bodycams than a robot. Why is the burden of proof on the rightly wary populace and not the police with their centuries long history of brutality?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com