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Robots Are Being Used To Shoo Away Homeless People In San Francisco (qz.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Quartz: San Francisco's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) has been ordered by the city to stop using a robot to patrol the sidewalks outside its office, the San Francisco Business Times reported Dec. 8. The robot, produced by Silicon Valley startup Knightscope, was used to ensure that homeless people didn't set up camps outside of the nonprofit's office. It autonomously patrols a set area using a combination of Lidar and other sensors, and can alert security services of potentially criminal activity.
In a particularly dystopian move, it seems that the San Francisco SPCA adorned the robot it was renting with stickers of cute kittens and puppies, according to Business Insider, as it was used to shoo away the homeless from near its office. San Francisco recently voted to cut down on the number of robots that roam the streets of the city, which has seen an influx of small delivery robots in recent years. The city said it would issue the SPCA a fine of $1,000 per day for illegally operating on a public right-of-way if it continued to use the security robot outside its premises, the San Francisco Business Times said.
In a particularly dystopian move, it seems that the San Francisco SPCA adorned the robot it was renting with stickers of cute kittens and puppies, according to Business Insider, as it was used to shoo away the homeless from near its office. San Francisco recently voted to cut down on the number of robots that roam the streets of the city, which has seen an influx of small delivery robots in recent years. The city said it would issue the SPCA a fine of $1,000 per day for illegally operating on a public right-of-way if it continued to use the security robot outside its premises, the San Francisco Business Times said.
Humans are also animals.
Apparently they crap in the street and spread disease too- but this seems like more of a societal problem than the SPCA's
love is just extroverted narcissism
I find it bizarre that SPCA has funds for homeless-shooing robots.
TFA sez the robot costs $6/hr to rent. Min wage is $14/hr.
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
You're thinking of WWI. When we entered WWII nearly all of Europe was still in Nazi hands, as was North Africa. And we had been supplying the allies with weapons and machinery before that. The Japanese controlled nearly all of the Pacific west of Hawaii. The U.S was in the war for part of 1941, all of 1942, 1943, 1944, and part of 1945. At the end of the war we had 16 million men in uniform. So, no, it wasn't "basically" over when we got in.
Animal rights people typically have a hugely negative attitude towards humans, yes. It's not hypocrisy, it's the opposite: consistency.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Actually, many of the homeless have varying degrees of mental illness. People on welfare often get stuck on it because they lose the benefits faster than earned income fills the gap.
They have been doing something like this with kids for years in the UK. Instead of robots they have speakers outside the building that play classical music all day. The cool kids don't want to hang around asking people to buy them booze any more.
Of course, all it does is displace the problem.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Nah, it's about poverty. If drug addiction lead to homelessness, Robert Downy Jr. and Lindsey Lohan would have moved into cardboard boxes decades ago.
they choose
Really?
high prevalence of mental illnesses and other psychiatric disorders
-- https://jamanetwork.com/journa...
80% of respondents reported some form of mental health issue, 45% had been diagnosed with a mental health issue.
-- http://www.homeless.org.uk/fac...
Around 70 per cent of people accessing homelessness services have a mental health problem.
-- http://www.nhsconfed.org/resou...
Society has failed them, seriously?
Civilised society, yes.