A drunk man in California attempted to assault a crime prevention robot which called the police and reported its own assault during the incident.
Jason Sylvain, whilst heavily intoxicated (and for reasons we’ve yet to determine) took offence to the crime fighting robot and decided to challenge it to fisticuffs. The assailant managed to successfully knock down the 300lbs robot to the floor, however, shortly after the assault the local police arrived and arrested the man.
The robot (called the Knightscope K5) has been designed to patrol the car park to prevent any damage or theft of vehicles. It has built-in cameras which live stream and also reportedly, facial recognition tech, to report any known criminals. The robot itself has fallen into criticism for possible invasion of privacy given its wide array of surveillance equipment.
The robots have been deployed in several locations throughout California and fell into controversy 2 years ago when a model ran into a child causing light injuries.
Knightscope’s vice president of marketing, Dean Stephens has since said: “The robot did exactly as it was supposed to do, The ‘assault’ was detected and immediately reported,” she added that “The alarms on the robot sounded, the suspect attempted to flee the scene and was detained by one of my colleagues and me until the Mountain View Police arrived.”
The robot only suffered light scratches and it has yet to be determined if a re-match between the two will occur.
