We are entering an age where autonomous devices are becoming more common. People are fond of these innovations since it's convenient and does most of the work. However, setbacks are already showing themselves. Aside from robots taking jobs, it might be used for surveillance now too.
Delivery Bot Keeps an Eye Out
Los Angeles is among the few cities that are slowly adopting autonomous delivery. More and more bots show up in the streets to bring food to customers' doorsteps. With its task at hand, it's in a fitting position to also be used as patrols in the streets, which might cause fear among the public.
Just recently, a food delivery bot for Uber Eats provided video footage to the police to help with a criminal investigation. While it's the same magnitude as authorities accessing CCTV footage for the same reason, a roving robot might pose more of a threat.
The robot under the company Serve Robotics was involved in an attempted theft, as reported by Gizmodo, so it makes sense that the LAPD would subpoena the footage to identify the perpetrators, but that's not entirely the root of the concern.
With the potential to watch over the streets, these bots might soon be used for patrol. 404 Media writer Joseph Cox said the robots can easily become moving surveillance devices, especially since they are recording constantly.
The problem extends to other unknown factors, such as how long the videos are held by the company after the robot does its job, or what Serve Robotics' policies are in sharing video data they have from the robots that roam the streets.
Surveillance and privacy expert Chris Gilliard says that we can expect the company to continue sharing footage with the police, also raising the scenario where police might make specific requests about surveillance in certain areas.
They Can't Just Remove a Security Measure
There is weight to the concerns that have been raised regarding the delivery bots being used for constant and moving surveillance, but the best thing that companies can do is to make sure that the surveillance videos remain private or are deleted once they no longer have use for them.
The camera function is important since it serves as the eyes to navigate toward its destination, and there have also been several cases of people tampering if not trying to steal the robot or its content. This is becoming a growing problem in the US.
Interesting Engineering reports that videos of people vandalizing the delivery bots are surfacing online. This is a problem not only for the companies that own the robots since they are quite expensive, but also for the businesses that provide the food the robot is handling.
The food place will have to remake the order and the company operating the bots will reimburse the business for it. Fortunately, Serve Robots still managed to have a 99.9% success rate in delivering food with security measures in place such as surveillance and locking the compartment.
