The robots are taking over! Two giant robots have taken over the jobs of traffic police in Kinshasa, the capital of Congo. Sure, they do the same things as traffic lights and speed cameras do here in the U.S. but the robots are huge, novel, and intimidating. More intimidating than a live policeman in the same occupation. Compliance with traffic rules is up, and both drivers and pedestrians follow the robots signals better than they obeyed the cops.
The solar-powered robot is equipped with multiple cameras, opening the potential for monitoring traffic and issuing tickets. “If a driver says that it is not going to respect the robot because it’s just a machine the robot is going to take that and there will be a ticket for him,” said Isaie Therese, the engineer behind the project said in an interview with CCTV Africa. “We are a poor country and our government is looking for money. And I will tell you that with the roads the government has built, it needs to recover its money.”
See more pictures of the robots at the Washington Post. -via Nag on the Lake
(Image from YouTube)
Funny how that is!