Forget those human security guards. Why not hire a hunk of metal for $7 an hour?
Uber is upping its parking lot security with robots. The ride-sharing service has tasked K5, a poor man’s R2-D2 built by Silicon Valley startup Knightscope, with monitoring one of its San Francisco parking lots. Weighing in at 300-pounds and charging $7 an hour, K5 will automatically monitor against any criminal activity.
The conical robot sports an array of sensors to detect and record mischievous behavior. Cameras for 360-degree vision, a laser rangefinder, and a license-plate recognition camera make it perfect for keeping tabs on areas prone to crime. K5 can swiftly recognize 1,500 license plates a minute, alerting police if there’s a matching reported plate. In addition, four microphones allow K5 to sense and record sound in its environment.
As opposed to Hollywood’s finest, à la RoboCop, K5 isn’t capable of apprehending criminals. If a thief is spotted snooping around a lot, K5 sounds an alarm, alerts security guards, and records any evidence to be used against the criminal. For humans’ safety, k5 isn’t hiding any secret weapons in its chassis.
“For the cost of a single-shift security guard, you get a machine that will patrol for 24 hours a day 7 days a week,” says Stacy Stephens, VP of marketing at Knightscope, to Fusion. Companies don’t buy the robots but rent them instead. A human security guard can cost somewhere between $25 and $35 an hour, but deploying two of Knightscope’s robots, one to patrol and one to charge its battery, can be a real financial advantage. “If someone comes into the area and creates a disturbance, you’ve got evidence, photos of people, their license plates, a lot of forensic evidence you wouldn’t have had previously,” Stephens tells Fusion.
Uber didn’t comment on why they’ve hired the robot, but Stephens says that Knightscope has been popular with campuses, logistics centers, and data centers. Knightscope launched in 2014, and has since then, only deployed its robots in California.
Via: Fusion
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