The Creeping Tide of Surveillance: How Boston Dynamics and Assa Abloy are Paving the Way for a Robotic Surveillance State
Swedish conglomerate Assa Abloy, the parent company of Kwikset and Yale locks, has struck a chilling deal with robotics giant Boston Dynamics to develop a digital door access system that will allow Spot robots to freely roam through secured areas, unchecked and unwitnessed. The marriage of these two titans of surveillance will make it easier for companies to unleash an army of robot guards, unencumbered by pesky human restrictions.
Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot, equipped with its own digital access credentials and Bluetooth connectivity, can already breeze through auto-opening doors, courtesy of Assa Abloy’s HID-branded Signo readers. No longer will Spot have to bother with trivial things like paw-tapping or even human supervision.
The implications are staggering. Imagine a future where these Spot robots, already eerily advanced, patrol your home, your workplace, your entire community, unfettered by the constraints of human oversight. Where these mechanical sentinels are granted unfettered access to your most intimate and private spaces.
Other companies, like Asylon Robotics, have already experimented with their own custom Spot-based solutions, like the DroneDog, which has even been spotted at the Atlanta Falcons’ stadium. But Assa Abloy’s vast install base of door access systems gives them the keys to the surveillance kingdom.
As we welcome these Spot robots into our midst, we must ask: are we trading our autonomy for the false sense of security offered by these digital overlords? When we cede control to robots, what are we relinquishing? Our humanity?
The normalization of robotic patrol guards is a ticking time bomb, waiting to be detonated by Assa Abloy and Boston Dynamics. We must wake up to the reality that these companies are shaping our futures, and it’s imperative we demand transparency, accountability, and a reckoning for the surveillance state we’re unwittingly constructing.
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