For now, goodbye to the robot that (sort of) guarded the New York subway
The New York Police Department robot sat motionless like a sad Wall-E on Friday morning, collecting dust in an empty storefront in New York City's busiest subway station.
The cameras no longer scanned the belt hangers walking through Times Square. Subway riders no longer pressed the help button, if they ever did.
New York City has retired the robot, known as the Knightscope K5, from its Times Square station. Police were forced to assign officers to escort the robot, which is 6 feet tall and weighs 400 pounds. It couldn't use the stairs. Some straphangers wanted to abuse it.
“The K5 Knightscope has completed its pilot in the New York City subway system,” a department spokesperson said in an email.
On Friday, the white device in the paint scheme of the NYPD stood amid a mountain of cardboard boxes, separated from the traveling masses by a glass window. People passing by said they were often baffled by the robot.
“I thought it was a toy,” said Derek Dennis, 56, a signal engineer.
It was an ignominious end for an experiment that Mayor Eric Adams, a self-described tech geek, hoped would help bring safety and order to the subway at a time when crime remained a pressing concern for many New Yorkers.
The robot was supposed to be an extra pair of eyes in a system where passenger numbers remain well below pre-pandemic levels. The presence of the squats was supposed to deter crime, and the communication skills would provide a way for straphangers in need to seek help.
“Ultimately this will be part of the fabric of our metro system,” Mr Adams said Septemberas he welcomed the robot's arrival in Times Square, part of a months-long pilot project that he said cost the city just $9 an hour.
“This is below the minimum wage,” Mr Adams said. “No toilet breaks. No meal breaks. This is a good investment.”
But on Friday, Jose Natera, 49, a construction worker, said he would normally see two police officers standing awkwardly next to the robot under Seventh Avenue.
“Who took care of whom,” he asked. “The robot for the police, or the police for the robot?”
Kelvin Caines, a security guard, said he never saw the robot making the rounds. Instead, it was plugged into a charging station and people posed for selfies next to it.
The officers “never let it do anything,” he said. “At least they could walk down the hall with it.”
The city borrowed the robot from Knightscope, a Mountain View, California-based company. When the mayor first announced it had come to New York last April, his office said the city had signed a seven-month contract with the company, including three months to get the device ready for use and four months to to test, all for the cost of $12,250. The robot started its patrol in September.
The Adams administration said in a statement Friday that it was “continually exploring innovative technologies” and was reviewing options for the robot's “next deployment.”
The mayor had said the robot would not use facial recognition technology, but its arrival immediately raised concerns among civil libertarians, who warned that the robot was the harbinger of an increasingly dystopian surveillance society and would further infringe on the privacy of New Yorkers.
Last year the Legal Aid Society called for an investigation into police use of surveillance technology, arguing it was inconsistent a city law that makes it public how new technology is used and how data is protected.
On Thursday, Shane Ferro, a staff attorney with the group's Digital Forensics Unit, said the Adams administration was “distracted by false claims about high-tech solutions to age-old problems.”
The mayor has long been interested in new, if not bizarre, technologies. As Brooklyn borough president, he touted a lasso-like device called BolaWrap, which was designed to incapacitate emotionally unstable people. His friend Frank Carone had invested in the company. Mr. Carone would serve as Mr. Adams' chief of staff at City Hall.
Mr Adams has also advocated the city's use of a robot dog – the Digidog – to assist emergency responders in situations that pose a risk of bodily harm.
The arrival of the K5 in New York City was announced with not one, but two media events. His at least temporary retirement was accompanied by barely a peep.
Earlier this week, Edward Caban, the police commissioner, gave his State of the Department address at Cipriani in Manhattan, where a huge screen showed a video montage of all the technological gadgets and machines officers have used over the past year.
There were dramatic images of drones, the Digidog and a gun that can attach electronic trackers to fleeing cars.
There was no mention of the K5.
A spokeswoman for Knightscope had no immediate comment. The company's stock traded at 59 cents per share on Thursday, compared to $16.29 at its initial public offering on January 28, 2022.
With major crimes down and the mayor imposing budget cuts on municipal agencies, Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a privacy and civil rights group, says people should question spending on gadgets.
“I've described it as a garbage can on wheels, but it looks like the wheels aren't even working right now,” Mr Cahn said.
Thursday night, as rush-hour crowds poured through the Times Square station, the robot sat quietly in its brightly lit exile. Two police officers standing near the turnstiles said that although they were not regularly assigned to the station, they did not recall ever seeing the robot on beat.
One of the officers said he was relieved the robot was mothballed. He didn't want to be responsible for it.
Maria Kramer And Nate Schweber reporting contributed.