Autonomous vehicles and flying drones that would disable a suspect’s car
remotely with an electromagnetic pulse are set to patrol highways by
2025 according to a number of concept vehciles designed by major
manufacturers such as Honda, BMW and General Motors.
“It’s going to be used for chasing people across the desert, I would
imagine. I can’t think of many civilian applications – maybe for
hunting, or farming, for rounding up sheep.” Sharkey added.
“But of course if it’s used for combat, it would be killing civilians as well as it’s not going to be able to discriminate between civilians and soldiers.”
The 2012 LA Design Challenge asked companies to come up with a concept for “Highway Patrol Vehicle 2025,” with the winner set to be announced next week.
Most of the entrants for the competition have responded
with designs that overwhelmingly suggest “patrol cars and motorcycles
would be replaced by computerized drones,” within the next 10-15 years, reports the New York Times.
Honda’s entry, the Honda CHP Drone Squad, includes both a
four wheeled drone vehicle and a two-wheeled motorcycle-style drone,
both of which would hunt down suspects without the need to be manned.
General Motors’ concept, named the Vault Squad, includes
three futuristic vehicles designed to “observe, pursue or engage.” The
NY Times noted that the term “engage” was “left menacingly undefined.”
BMW’s DesignworksUSA studio came up the E-Patrol
(Human-Drone Pursuit Vehicle), which would allow the operator to deploy
an airborne armed surveillance drone which would have the capability to
disable a suspect’s vehicle using an electromagnetic pulse.
“The main structure can deploy three drones. The top
drone sits above the main structure and is a flying drone, while the
other two are one wheel vehicles attached to the rear,” according to BMW.
“In the case of a pursuit during heavy traffic areas, the patrol
officer sitting in the two passenger main structure can deploy either
the flying drone or one of the single wheel drones to chase the suspect
and report back data to the main structure. When all drones are
deployed, the main structure can continue to function. All drones have
added protection benefits in that they can send an impulse to another
vehicle and disable it.”
One of the concept drawings for
the BMW design shows a license plate scanner within the vehicle which
automatically brings up a photograph of every driver on the road,
whether they are a suspect or not.
“By coincidence or destiny, designers at several
companies came up with concepts for robotic, autonomously driven
vehicles on ground, water and air. These future police cruisers —
usually presented as story boards rather than actual vehicles — recall
today’s Predator and Global Hawk drones, stars of the anti-insurgency
efforts. They may give new meaning to those signs that read “Speed limit
enforced by aircraft,” writes the Times’ Phil Patton.
As we have previously highlighted,
the whole direction of drones and automated robot technology being
developed by the likes of DARPA is all geared towards having machines
take the role of police officers in pursuing and engaging “insurgents”
on American soil.
Technology experts have warned that removing the human
element from law enforcement could lead to people being summarily
executed.
Although Boston Dynamics and DARPA claim the robots are
ostensibly being designed to help conduct humanitarian and relief
missions, Noel Sharkey, professor of artificial intelligence and
robotics at the University of Sheffield, recently warned that the true
purpose of the machines is less benign.
Speaking about the Cheetah, a robot currently being perfected by Boston Dynamics, Sharkey said the device represented, “an incredible technical achievement, but it’s unfortunate that it’s going to be used to kill people.”
“But of course if it’s used for combat, it would be killing civilians as well as it’s not going to be able to discriminate between civilians and soldiers.”
You can see images of all the LA Design Challenge concepts at this link.