Uber delivery robot breaches LA crime-scene tape

Uber delivery robot breaches LA crime-scene tape.

Uber’s delivery robot breached the caution tape surrounding a crime scene in Los Angeles (USA).

On September 13, 2022, William Gude, the owner of the Twitter account Film the Police LA, was within the perimeter of the alleged shooting at Hollywood High School. He noticed an Uber-owned delivery robot roll across the sidewalk and approach the yellow caution tape.

“I saw the robot pull up, and I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Gude said in a phone call to Gizmodo.

According to him, the device continued to aggressively maneuver around the tape until a videoreporter lifted it to allow the drone to pass. The robot crossed the crime scene, bypassing a group of Los Angeles Police Department officers.

“The Hollywood High School incident can be described with certainty as a dystopia: on one side of the street, law enforcement were directing a crowd that included parents and their children, while on the other side a drone was coming down,” Gude noted.

The video author did not specify whether the robot was performing a delivery at the time.

A Serve Robotics spokesman, Adyuk Telvell, said that standard operating procedure is to redirect, not cross barriers. However, in this case the device’s operator decided that he had been waved on and allowed to pass, he noted.

“We are taking steps to ensure compliance with operating procedures in the future,” Telvell added.

It turned out the robot was not acting fully autonomously as it crossed the crime scene.

“Although in most cases Serve Robotics drones are capable of operating autonomously, each is assigned a safety operator. This incident was the result of human error in overcoming the obstacle,” Telvell noted.

Back in February 2021, the New York Police Department deployed a robotic dog at a crime scene.

In May, American law enforcement officials abandoned the AI-powered Spot due to its “aggressive and intimidating appearance.”

In September, Singapore police began deploying patrol robots.

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