- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.ml
- technology@midwest.social
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.ml
- technology@midwest.social
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to buy at least a million dollars worth of robots from Boston Dynamics, the company that makes the dog-like SPOT robots, with the purpose of improving “officer safety,” according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announcement.
These are the robot dogs with the big red button on them you can press and they turn off.
Some moronic swat team used it recently and then lost it because the barricaded suspect kicked the button.
Its also really easy to yank the battery out if you need to. The battery also only lasts an hour and a half, tops, and depending what attachments are on it the weight and power draw will shorten that. They will only be useful in quick scenarios like breaching buildings in a raid. Range from the controller isnt very far either without wifi connection, you have to follow it around in unconnected locations.
People tend to imagine strapping a gun to it but really its a scouting tool. Open a door (awkwardly) walk in and look around. Then people follow in and do the work.
They also fall for the classic ‘put a blanket and/or some leaves over a hole in the ground’ pitfall trap.
They also trigger tripwires pretty regularly and don’t have much, if any defense against snares. Dumb shit like oil\lube on the ground will work too
Hell, I never thought of it before but just throwing a blanket over it would probably do a lot. Would be a fairly simple way to disable it long enough to get to the battery or off button.
Memories of the fourth Doctor foiling a Dalek by putting his hat on its eye-stalk.