Honolulu PD Is Using Boston Dynamics’ Robot Dog To Check The Temperature Of Homeless People

In order to curb the spread of the coronavirus, many places have started to adopt temperature scans which checks if a person has a fever before they enter a location. This is because having a fever is one of the symptoms that someone might have the coronavirus, so preventing that person from coming in could potentially help curb the spread.

But what about people who are homeless? Who’s checking up on them? It turns out that over in Hawaii, the Honolulu PD have decided to deploy Boston Dynamics’ robot dog, Spot, to help take the temperatures of homeless people from them instead of using regular police officers.

The robot dog is said to cost around $150,000 and there have been some pushback on the use of the robot. However, according to officer Mike Lambert of the Honolulu PD, it makes sense financially. This is because while the cost of the robot is high, Lambert has estimated that over the course of 90-days, it could save the department anywhere between $117,000 to $242,760.

This is based on how much it would cost to pay officers to take temperatures of homeless people, as well as how much the department would have to pay an officer to quarantine for 14 days should they be exposed to the virus.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Robots
Tags: boston dynamics, Health, Social Hit