Authorities in Shanghai are relying on robot dogs with loudspeakers strapped to their backs to enforce the latest round of COVID lockdowns.
A video out of the city shows a robot dog scuttling down a residential street barking out orders and reminding people to stay inside their homes.
The streets of the city, which has a population of over 26 million, are completely deserted.
Shanghai has deployed robotic dogs to blare lockdown instructions to the public. pic.twitter.com/PK72YIPfxs
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 30, 2022
Robot dogs have been used throughout Asian countries during the pandemic to enforce lockdown measures and social distancing.
A video out of South Korea showed a robot dog made by US-based Boston Dynamics fitted with a surveillance camera monitoring how busy Bishan-Ang Moh Kio Park was.
“It also carries a loudspeaker to broadcast social-distancing messages,” reported BBC News.
One of the creepiest and most dystopian things I’ve seen since the pandemic began: a terrifying camera-equipped remote-controlled robot patrols Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park in Singapore to — for now — warn about social distancing. Look at the fear. Story: https://t.co/12QfT1mcyZ pic.twitter.com/hBGUhmC7N7
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 8, 2020
Shanghai has been placed under yet another lockdown as authorities continue to pursue a disastrous ‘zero COVID’ policy.
Having failed to achieve anything like herd immunity, the Omicron variant of COVID has caused more more coronavirus cases in four weeks than in the previous two years of the entire pandemic.
Earlier this week, residents in the eastern part of the city were ordered to go under lockdown while the western half will enter a lockdown on Friday.
Full article: Robot dogs with loudspeakers enforce shanghai lockdown