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Not quite ready for world domination! 'Suicidal' security robot drowns itself in a fountain

By  JESSICA CHIA (Mail Online)    10:15, July 19, 2017

Alas, it seems we've got a few more years before the robots take over.

A security robot created by the company Knightscope was patrolling an office complex in Washington D.C. when it rolled into a fountain and met its untimely demise on Monday.

The incident went viral on Twitter after Bilal Farooqui, an employee at the Washington Harbour complex, tweeted a photo of the 300-pound android, writing: 'We were promised flying cars, instead we got suicidal robots.'

A security robot created by the company Knightscope was patrolling an office complex in Washington D.C. when it rolled into a fountain and met its untimely demise

The K5 robot, which measures about five-feet tall, is billed as an 'autonomous presence' that is rented out to malls, office buildings, and parking lots to enforce order

The K5 robot, which measures about five-feet tall, is rented out to malls, office buildings, and parking lots to enforce order with a built-in video camera, license plate recognition, and thermal imaging.

Billed as an 'autonomous presence' that can 'guide [itself] through even the most complex environments', the robot spins around and whistles.

It appears the drudgery became too much on Monday when the robot rolled down some stairs and fell into the fountain.

Employees were pictured hauling the robot out of the water, and Knightscope said it would deliver a new robot to the office building for free.

After Farooqui posted a photo of the robot partially submerged, Twitter users went wild over the image.

Guillermo Meneses shared a previous photo of himself standing next to the robot, joking: 'My remembrance moment with Steve the Robot. Just last Friday. We were such good friends; he looked so happy and healthy'.

After Farooqui posted a photo of the robot partially submerged, Twitter users went wild over the image

Adam Singer wrote: 'That robot is what all of us want to do in 2017.'

User Chris Mahan tweeted: 'Just put it in a big bowl of rice and wait three days.'

Peter Singer wrote: 'Steps are our best defense against the Robopocalypse.'

Colin Weir questioned the robot's efficacy, writing: 'I had a cheap second hand roomba that could avoid stairs.'

Brett Rosner tweeted 'Rest in pieces', while Tony Solorzano made a reference to the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

'Somewhere at the end of the universe, Marvin the Paranoid Android is looking up and saying, "sigh... Amateur...,"' he wrote.

This isn't the first time a Knightscope robot has made headlines. One rolled over a 16-month-old boy in Stanford, California, last summer.

In April, Jason Sylvain, 41, was arrested for drunkenly attacking a robot in a Mountain View, California parking lot. 

 

(For the latest China news, Please follow People's Daily on Twitter and Facebook)(Web editor: Du Xiaofei, Bianji)

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