
It's a fun day here at @gmmb. The super high-tech security robot at our office complex has had a mishap. pic.twitter.com/nhRshrJA9w
— Greg Pinelo (@gregpinelo) July 17, 2017
A Robocop security guard met its watery end after it somehow rolled into a public fountain outside a Washington, D.C., office building and failed to get up.
The android was a Knightscope K5 security robot, designed to be on the look out for crime and alert authorities if it witnesses something suspicious. It also had the ability to identify break-ins and make emergency calls.
As the story goes, the robot, affectionately known as “Steve the robot,” recently began operating and was making its usual rounds outside the Washington Harbor office and retail complex in Georgetown when it fell down some steps and into the water fountain, according to an office worker.
“This is an isolated event,” Knightscope told BuzzFeed in an emailed statement. “The incident is under investigation. No people were harmed or involved in any way. A new robot will be delivered this week at no cost to the Harbor per our service agreement.”
While it’s unclear if the robot survived the tragic accident or the circumstances behind its fall, people on the internet have already dubbed it a “suicide” — after all, it won’t be entirely impossible to imagine a robot getting fed up with humans, right?
Perhaps, Steve was just done with his job. Either way, social media users had a lot to say about the “drowning.”
Our D.C. office building got a security robot. It drowned itself.
— Bilal Farooqui (@bilalfarooqui) July 17, 2017
We were promised flying cars, instead we got suicidal robots. pic.twitter.com/rGLTAWZMjn
wow i can't believe they baptized the robot pic.twitter.com/pqYjRCrzHE
— James Vincent (@jjvincent) July 17, 2017
It's ok security robot. It's a stressful job, we've all been there. pic.twitter.com/LQbnntbCRm
— ???Sparkle Ops??? (@SparkleOps) July 17, 2017
Arya Stark: When people ask you what happened here, tell them the North remembers. Tell them winter came for your security robot. pic.twitter.com/ZEz58gT4V7
— Ryan Mac (@RMac18) July 17, 2017
Thanks to @ComfortablySmug for the close-up. I call this "Dramatic Robot" pic.twitter.com/E7XpBJfoTd
— Smoking_Cyberman (@UKISOCIETY) July 17, 2017
Elon Musk: "Robots will be able do everything better than us."
— Elan Ruskin (@despair) July 18, 2017
Robots: pic.twitter.com/XjM10eCaVt
If you're a security robot and feel suicidal! Please know you can get help! It's not worth ending your life! #securityrobot #dc
— Thomas Winzeler (@Theaggiefan1) July 17, 2017
Of course, people were quick to draw comparisons between the sad K5 and Marvin, the depressed robot from Douglas Adams’ bestselling novel, “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.”
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980) - Douglas Adams pic.twitter.com/jt5VArA6ye
— Danny Page (@DannyPage) July 17, 2017
Poor Marvin, sometimes life as a security robot is just too tough. https://t.co/0avBQv98l6
— Mathias Payer (@gannimo) July 17, 2017
His name was Marvin. pic.twitter.com/fo0FwryjPn
— Patrick L. Lee (@patricklee6669) July 17, 2017
There were also several references to other sad (fictional) robots:
straight from the Daleks in Doctor Who pic.twitter.com/eLWn2Pj1gw
— Darshan Shankar (@DShankar) July 17, 2017
— lindsey (@Lindzeta) July 17, 2017
— Mark Edward Croy (@MECroy) July 17, 2017
— Hans (@Helsravn) July 17, 2017
— Winthrop Rodgers (@wrodgers2) July 17, 2017
This is not the first time these K5 robots have made headlines.
Earlier this year, a man allegedly assaulted one of Knightscope security robots while it was patrolling the company's offices in Mountain View, California.
In 2016, a K5 robot at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, California, which was 5 feet tall and weighed over 300 pounds, reportedly ran over a 16-month-old named Harwin Cheng.
"The robot hit my son's head and he fell down facing down on the floor and the robot did not stop and it kept moving forward," Harwin's mother said at the time.
Thumbnail Credits: Reuters/Jim Drury
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