For San Francisco, and for other American cities, the problem of the homeless. Whole campgrounds with the homeless on the sidewalks of the streets have long become a familiar sight for residents and visitors of the metropolis. Lately, there have been a lot of programs and initiatives aimed at solving the problem, but the latter way is clearly stand out against the others. Last week, the human rights organization SF SPCA, which provides assistance to homeless animals, engaged a security robot to prevent homeless people from settling on sidewalks near one of the company's offices in the Mission District area (you catch irony?). Of course, such actions could not remain unnoticed by the authorities of San Francisco, who only recently banned robot messengers to move along the sidewalks without permission. They "politely asked" SF SPCA to remove the robot from the street, warning that otherwise the organization would not avoid a fine of $ 1,000 for every day the car was on the sidewalk without permission. It turns out that they were embarrassed by the lack of a license, not the purpose for which the machine was used. In an interview with the source, the SF SPCA public relations manager, Krista Maloney, said that the organization was forced to do so, since the employees could no longer move freely along the sidewalks because of the camps. She also noted that during the month of the robot's work, the camps significantly decreased, and along with them the number of burglaries of cars parked nearby decreased. By the way, this security robot is Knightscope K9 - the development of a well-known company whose robots repeatedly became heroes of amusing news. Note that Knightscope rents out its robots for only $ 7 per hour - the hourly work of security guards is paid much higher. The company provides services in five US states and has more than 19 major customers, including such eminent technology companies as Microsoft, Uber and Juniper Networks. Most use Knightscope robots for patrolling parking spaces and office buildings. The Knightscope K9 robot patrolling the area near the SF SPCA office was perceived by the public quite ambiguously. During the first week, people who helped the homeless, covered the robot with a tarpaulin, knocked them off the feet, watered its sensors with ketchup and mocked the machine in various ways, forgetting about the elementary standards of decency. But, as is usually the case, there were also supporters who supported the idea of ??SF SPCA.

Original article: In San Francisco, animal advocates used robots to disperse homeless people from sidewalks.