Tag: francisco,
San Francisco to allow police ‘killer robots’
San Francisco green lights SFPD rule allowing robotic lethal-force
Last week, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) submitted a controversial regulation change allowing officers to use robots to kill suspects. The rule faced pushback from the Board of Supervisors and civil rights advocates, including the ACLU. After at least one set of revisions, the SFPD finally submitted the proposal…
San Francisco police seek permission for its robots to use deadly force
The San Francisco Police Department is currently petitioning the city’s Board of Supervisors for permission to deploy robots to kill suspects that law enforcement deems a sufficient threat that the “risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available to SFPD.” The draft policy, which was written by the SFPD itself, also seeks to exclude “hundreds of assault rifles from its inventory of military-style weapons and for not include personnel costs in the price of its weapons,” according to a report from Mission Local.
As Mission Local notes, this proposal has already seen significant opposition from both within and without the Board. Supervisor Aaron Peskin, initially pushed back against the use of force requirements, inserting “Robots shall not be used as a Use of Force against any person,” into the policy language. The SFPD removed that wording in a subsequent draft, which I as a lifelong San Francisco resident did not know was something that they could just do. The three-member Rules Committee, which Peskin chairs, then unanimously approved that draft and advanced it to the full Board of Supervisors for a vote on November 29th. Peskin excused his decision by claiming that “there could be scenarios where deployment of lethal force was the only option.”
The police force currently maintains a dozen fully-functional remote-controlled robots, which are typically used for area inspections and bomb disposal. However, as the Dallas PD showed in 2016, they make excellent bomb delivery platforms as well. Bomb disposal units are often equipped with blank shotgun shells used to forcibly disrupt an explosive device’s internal workings, though there is nothing stopping police from using live rounds if they needed, as Oakland police recently acknowledged to that city’s civilian oversight board.
While San Francisco has never explicitly allowed for robots to take human lives, lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs), are increasingly common in modern warfare. Anti-personnel mines, one of the earliest iterations of automated weaponry, have been banned since 1997 (but tell that to the mines already in the ground) and fully automated defenses like shipboard Phalanx systems have been in use since the 1970s. Autonomous offensive systems, such as UAVs and combat drones, have been used for years but have always required a “human in the loop” to bear the responsibility of actually firing the weapons. Now, the SFPD — the same department that regularly costs the city six-figure settlements for its excessive use of force and actively opposes investigations into its affinity for baton-based beatings — wants to wield that same life-and-death power over San Francisco’s civilians.
Waymo can now provide fully driverless rides in San Francisco
Waymo can now provide driverless rides to passengers in San Francisco. On Friday, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) said it granted the Alphabet-owned Waymo a permit to participate in its driverless pilot program, which lets autonomous vehicle (AV) companies transport passengers in test AVs without anyone at the wheel.
Waymo still isn’t allowed to charge for these rides, though. The state of California requires companies to obtain a series of incremental permits from both the CPUC and the Department of Motor Vehicles before they’re able to charge for driverless rides. Waymo just needs to secure the driverless deployment permit from the CPUC to fully launch its robotaxi service, as it already received clearance from the…
Waymo can now charge for fully driverless services in San Francisco
The California Department of Motor Vehicles approved an amendment to Waymo’s existing deployment permit Wednesday to include driverless, as well as drivered, operations. Now, Waymo will be able to charge for usage of its autonomous vehicles, which will operate without anyone in the driver’s seat, for services like food and grocery delivery. The upgraded DMV […]
Waymo can now charge for fully driverless services in San Francisco by Rebecca Bellan originally published on TechCrunch
Brendan Fraser Apologizes To San Francisco For George Of The Jungle Incident
Brendan Fraser has been a busy guy lately, with projects like Doom Patrol and the recently-canceled Batgirl film, and his critically-acclaimed film The Whale. Fraser appeared at San Francisco’s Mill Valley Film Festival for a screening of The Whale, where he offered an apology to the city for something that happened long, long ago, the SFGate reports.
First in a red carpet interview and then later when addressing the audience, Fraser told the brief anecdote. In 1997, the actor was filming a live-action adaptation of the 1960s animated show George of the Jungle. One scene in the movie has Fraser’s titular character rescuing someone whose parachute became tangled in a bridge on the way down. Brendan said it took place at the Golden Gate Bridge, but SFGate noted that it was actually the Bay Bridge.
“I have, almost, an apology to make. When we were doing George of the Jungle, George goes to rescue a parachutist tangled in the Golden Gate Bridge. That means Disney put a mannequin hanging by a parachute from the uprights,” Fraser explained. “It brought traffic to a standstill on either side of the bridge. My trailer was on the other side in a parking lot. I just remember watching the [Bridge]. There’s this dummy parachutist hanging from it.”
San Francisco Passes Controversial Surveillance Plan
Under the new policy, police can access up to 24 hours of live video of outdoor footage from private surveillance cameras owned by individuals or businesses without a warrant as long as the camera’s owner allows it. Police must meet one of three outlined criteria to use their newfound power: they must be responding to a life-threatening emergency, deciding how to deploy officers in response to a large public event or conducting a criminal investigation that was approved in writing by a captain or higher-ranking police official. The trial will last 15 months. If supervisors wish to extend or revise the policy, they must take a second vote. “I know the thought process is, ‘Just trust us, just trust the police department.’ But the reality is people have been violating civil liberties since my ancestors were brought here from an entirely, completely different continent,” Walton, the board president and District 10 representative, said.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins added: “I believe this policy can help address the existence of open-air drug markets fueling the sale of the deadly drug fentanyl. Drug dealers are destroying people’s lives and wreaking havoc on neighborhoods like the Tenderloin. Mass organized retail theft, like we saw in Union Square last year, or targeted neighborhood efforts like we’ve seen in Chinatown is another area where the proposed policy can help.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Francisco Partners acquires majority stake in Kobalt
New EU office in San Francisco opens in the Irish consulate
The aim of the US office is to strengthen EU digital diplomacy. It is headed by Gerard de Graaf, a key official who has worked on landmark tech laws.
Read more: New EU office in San Francisco opens in the Irish consulate