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Food Delivery Robots Are Feeding Camera Footage to the LAPD, Internal Emails Show (404media.co) 63

samleecole writes: A food delivery robot company that delivers for Uber Eats in Los Angeles provided video filmed by one of its robots to the Los Angeles Police Department as part of a criminal investigation, 404 Media has learned. The incident highlights the fact that delivery robots that are being deployed to sidewalks all around the country are essentially always filming, and that their footage can and has been used as evidence in criminal trials. Emails obtained by 404 Media also show that the robot food delivery company wanted to work more closely with the LAPD, which jumped at the opportunity.
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Food Delivery Robots Are Feeding Camera Footage to the LAPD, Internal Emails Show

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  • by ibpooks ( 127372 ) on Thursday September 28, 2023 @01:54PM (#63884091) Homepage

    This is a ridiculous summary of the article. It certainly is meant to conjure fears of an overbearing surveillance state. However, if you RTFA you'll see that the video footage the robot provided to LAPD was footage of two men trying to actually steal the robot itself while it was rolling down the sidewalk. It was not some unrelated crime the robot happened to capture.

    • Not to mention that many police departments routinely ask people who have surveillance cameras installed at their businesses or residences let them look at it to see if a criminal can be identified. It would be highly unusual if they didn't!

      • Or ask people in the area if they saw anything. It would be highly unusual if they didn't.

        • Witnesses are comparatively less-reliable. They also don't actually record every last little detail for hours on end (cameras can, and often do).

          • Comment removed based on user account deletion
            • by Holi ( 250190 )

              You have evidence of fraudulent clock ins (There's no federal law that makes employee time theft illegal in the U.S. so the police aren't gonna do squat) and they were not fired? That's totally on your company and not the police.

            • by cusco ( 717999 )

              I learned within my first week working in physical security (we installed, maintained and programmed cameras, key cards, alarms, etc.) that the only value for CCTV was forensics after the fact. The British police, with access to over 2,000,000 camera feeds, announced a couple of years ago that their camera monitoring had stopped "dozens of crimes". Not hundreds, not even scores, dozens over a ten year period.

              BTW folks, the wall full of screens that guard staff are attentively watching in the movies? They

              • Comment removed based on user account deletion
              • by Anonymous Coward

                What has helped in this department is AI. For example, on the security system at my last job, the guy at the desk had screens which would pop up and show a red rectangle if someone was standing in an area they shouldn't (bushes, emergency exit door), and at night, it would pop over to a screen if it detected a humanoid walking. With cars, there was a decent license plate reader that would sound an alert if someone's plates were on a blacklist. Having something AI based as something looking over the shoul

          • Witnesses are comparatively less-reliable. They also don't actually record every last little detail for hours on end (cameras can, and often do).

            Not only that, but they are not real reliable in recounting what was seen vs. what they thought they saw.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        Not to mention that many police departments routinely ask people who have surveillance cameras installed at their businesses or residences let them look at it to see if a criminal can be identified. It would be highly unusual if they didn't!

        Because you've got nothing to hide! You'd just let the police have a look around your home, no need for a warrant or anything! Only a criminal would deny the police access to their home or car!

        • by guruevi ( 827432 )

          The public street is not your private home. These things are on the street, where there is no expectation of privacy, many people already have cameras, hell, people have been demanding police and others get cameras installed to survey them.

          • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

            "...people have been demanding police and others get cameras installed to survey them."

            But the police cannot. You are conflating different things.

            Yes, the public street is not your private home, but no, the police cannot blanket surveil people on the public street. However, the police can ask people for help, and they can decline or assist.

            • They can attempt to decline. But if they set up a camera then . . .

            • "...people have been demanding police and others get cameras installed to survey them."

              But the police cannot. You are conflating different things.

              Yes, the public street is not your private home, but no, the police cannot blanket surveil people on the public street. However, the police can ask people for help, and they can decline or assist.

              If they decline they should immediately come under suspicion!

            • by cusco ( 717999 )

              the police cannot blanket surveil people on the public street

              Horseshit. You've obviously never attended a peaceful antiwar protest.

        • Generally it's in peoples interest to help solve crimes in their neighborhoods, yes. Crimes means someone's rights were in fact violated by the criminal, should the possibility of violation override the fact that an actual action took place? What does this line of thinking getting us?

        • Because you've got nothing to hide!

          Don't be ridiculous. There is a big difference between broad police surveillance and police asking for a private video of a specific time and place.

          I have security cameras on my home. One of them has a clear view of the street. The police once called me and asked me if I had a video of an hour when a burglar robbed a neighboring house.

          Since I don't like thieves, I was happy to help.

          • Because you've got nothing to hide!

            Don't be ridiculous. There is a big difference between broad police surveillance and police asking for a private video of a specific time and place.

            I have security cameras on my home. One of them has a clear view of the street. The police once called me and asked me if I had a video of an hour when a burglar robbed a neighboring house.

            Since I don't like thieves, I was happy to help.

            Of course, so if the police asked to come in and check your home for stolen property, you'd be happy to let them in. You have nothing to hide.

            • by Holi ( 250190 )

              What does voluntarily sharing video of the street outside your house have to do with warrantless searches. Seems like they are very different beasts.

              • If you allow them to search, they don't NEED a warrant.

                • So, just don't let them in the house while you check your camera footage. I wouldn't, and really don't understand why you assume that anyone would. What I'd do is have whoever wants to be the point of contact give me their business card and, if I turned up anything, email the footage. Problem solved.

              • by cusco ( 717999 )

                That's because you're not a Libertardian. I had one tell me that if the police see a stolen vehicle in his front yard that they had to get a search warrant to even go look at it.

                • by Pascoea ( 968200 )
                  At least those types make for some good YouTube videos. Especially their Sovereign Citizen cousins. I could watch people getting their car windows busted out and them getting arrested all day.
                  • At least those types make for some good YouTube videos. Especially their Sovereign Citizen cousins. I could watch people getting their car windows busted out and them getting arrested all day.

                    I can understand where the Sovereign Citizens are coming from though. In the USA, and many nation-states, the citizens are virtually treated like property or chattels of the state. This is kind of disgusting and should be resisted. Unfortunately, the Sovereign Citizens do so rather comically badly.

              • What does voluntarily sharing video of the street outside your house have to do with warrantless searches. Seems like they are very different beasts.

                If you aren't a criminal you have nothing to hide.
                You don't have anything to hide, do you? Failure to comply could be interpreted as admission of guilt.

            • by Pascoea ( 968200 )

              The police once called me and asked me if I had a video of an hour when a burglar robbed a neighboring house. ..I was happy to help.

              vs

              if the police asked to come in and check your home for stolen property, you'd be happy to let them in.

              Two completely different things. I'm perfectly within my rights, and sanity, to cooperate with one request and happily decline the other. If they don't like that, they can go get a warrant.

      • Police... actually doing their job?!? I am SHOCKED!!!
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by FrankOVD ( 4965439 ) on Thursday September 28, 2023 @02:09PM (#63884133)
      There is a plethora of recent example of how data gathered under the pretense of being used only for our safety has been misused or leaked. It's not like we can trust local and foreign governments, law enforcement, bad actors and private entities to always do what's right and protect our privacy at any cost. We say one shouldn't bother being spied on if they have nothing to hide, and yet we still put curtains and blinds on our windows. Putting AI, microphone and cameras is not guaranteed to lead us to a surveillance state, but it sure does make it easier. Security and freedom are two sides of the same coin, and we have to choose if having another device with cameras filming us from the curb is a fair price to pay for having pizza delivered by a robot.
  • I would be willing to bet the footage onboard any one of the myriad of cars with adaptive cruise control or backup camera is actually property of the car company and not the owner. Who is to say that the LAPD or any other police force has an agreement with Telsa, Ford, GM, Toyota ...... I for one hail our new surveillance state overlords :-) and am glad I drive a 20 year old mini truck with no AC and hand crank windows.
    • I would be willing to bet the footage onboard any one of the myriad of cars with adaptive cruise control or backup camera is actually property of the car company and not the owner. Who is to say that the LAPD or any other police force has an agreement with Telsa, Ford, GM, Toyota ...... I for one hail our new surveillance state overlords :-) and am glad I drive a 20 year old mini truck with no AC and hand crank windows.

      .

      "That might have been the way to do things back in 1996 Sergeant John Spartan, but that's not how we do things in 2032."

  • by Locke2005 ( 849178 ) on Thursday September 28, 2023 @02:33PM (#63884203)
    Now I'm gonna have to stop looting the delivery robots! To me, the huge potenticial for piracy remains the biggest drawback of autonomous vehicles. Put a traffic cone on the hood & steal the contents!
    • by hawk ( 1151 )

      Indeed.

      everyone give a nod of sympathy to Greenbeard, would-be modern scourge of the seven seas.

      Poor Greenbeard built a fully autonomous pirate ship, only to discover that it couldn't board other ships to loot them without a crew!

  • It's one thing for police to receive footage from the owner of the robot in relation to a crime committed (particularly against the robot). It's quite another for the robot to regularly supply footage unrelated to any crime in particular. Nobody seems to mind cameras recording crimes. It's everything else they record that is the problem.

    • by cusco ( 717999 )

      I'm at a loss as to why anyone would want to waste the time to review "footage unrelated to any crime in particular."

      • ... waste the time to review ...

        Nobody, said anything about reviewing it: But once the police have it, they can use it to 'prove' something is a crime, or obviously, as evidence of a crime.

        Have you heard the news? The government wants Apple and Google to copy every photo and check it for evidence of sexual abuse or female nipples, especially against/of children. That's where this is heading. A few weeks ago, we literally had a US police department planning to spy on every outdoor party it could find. Before that, the UK government

      • You ever read 1984? Cameras everywhere. Why?

  • by Bob_Who ( 926234 ) on Thursday September 28, 2023 @10:30PM (#63885217) Journal
    Food Delivery Robots Deliver the Police Video? Shouldn't they just deliver lunch instead?

    If they had to chose between video and donuts I think the decrease in crime will reflect in their weight gain.
  • Someone tried to steal the fucking robot. Of course they're gonna report that shit. AWS storage is expensive as fuck and there's no way they retain any video not explicitly needed for ML training for an indefinite period of time. But then again, having a teleoperator kind of means you don't have real working ML...
  • I don't have any problems with law enforcement having access to those camera's, it's no different then having live access to CCTV. BUT, it should not be available, just like live CCTV, to just anybody in the office. It should only be available to people with clearance in regard to live access, and any person having access to it should be logged at any time. Mind you, these drones are driving on public roads.

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