It’s only been about a year since Uber Eats began deploying food delivery robots throughout select parts of Los Angeles and, already, concerns have been raised that the squat little automatons could become a police surveillance tool.
404 Media reports that a company called Serve Robotics, which contracts out its delivery robots to Uber Eats, recently delivered video footage to the city’s police department to assist with a criminal investigation. The criminal investigation involved one of Serve’s own robots because someone tried to steal the delivery bot off the street. The LAPD subpoenaed Serve for video footage related to the incident, which the company dutifully delivered. The footage was then used by police to identify two suspects who are said to have been involved in the attempted theft.
While this incident seems pretty innocuous, it certainly raises questions as to how these devices could be used in future criminal investigations. Companies that rely heavily on surveillance-infused autonomous technology—like Tesla—or privatized public safety companies—like Amazon Ring—have already become integral to police investigations across the country. Joseph Cox, who wrote 404’s story on Serve Robotics, argues that autonomous vehicles of the sort typified by Serve Robotics could quite “easily become moving surveillance devices.” Cox notes that Serve’s bots are recording their surroundings pretty much “constantly,” and that it’s not entirely clear how long the company retains these videos once they’ve been captured.
PERCEPTION RESET 