A company called Otsaw has signed a partnership with Dubai to deploy self-driving police robots this year.
The robots are “the size of a child’s toy car” and come equipped with a drone that can track suspects in areas where the car can’t drive.
It’s unclear how real this is, as I haven’t heard of Singapore-based Otsaw before and their website is currently down.
The technology honestly seems a little out there right now, but it might be perfectly plausible in a year or two or three. Even today, robots surveil shopping malls.
To me, the most interesting aspect to this is how self-driving cars affect the balance between citizens, criminals, and the police.
I know less about Dubai, but in the US, police often use pretextual traffic stops to investigate more serious crimes. Self-driving cars might take away the pretext for a traffic stop, however, tipping the balance of power away from the police. Self-driving police cars with self-flying drones might tip that balance of power back.
David Silver 