Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty
- In September 2023, NYC Mayor Eric Adams praised the new subway-patrolling robot called K5.
- But K5 has been placed in robot purgatory while the city figures out its next job.
- I am now sad for the robot I once maligned.
When New York City Mayor Eric Adams stood next to a 400-pound "fully autonomous" subway-patrolling robot and proclaimed that it would soon become "part of the fabric of our subway system," I laughed and laughed and laughed.
Like many people, I thought the robot, called K5, was ridiculous — a bloated, shiny symbol of the surveillance state and the pet project of a mayor whose city was suffering crisis after crisis.