Well, I guess we can file this story under the “Didn’t see that coming” category: Two new robot cops have been put in place along the intersection of Boulevard Triomphal and Huileries Avenue in Kinshasa, part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for the sole purpose of easing traffic congestion.
The two gigantic bots are solar-powered, and were designed by engineers from the Kinshasa Higher Institute of Applied Technique. A bit funny looking in the sense that they look like they’re from a long-lost science fiction flick, the bots are actually putting in some pretty serious work: They direct traffic and have on them four different cameras that are constantly recording traffic flow and making adjustments as necessary.
Any traffic violations recorded on these cameras (running a red light, speeding, etc.) are immediately sent to a center for analysis.
“If a driver says that he’s not going to respect the robot because it’s just a machine, the robot is going to take that and there will be a ticket for him,” Isaie Therese, the engineer who invented the robot, told CCTV Africa.
The response thus far has been a bit mixed. While traffic in one of the capital’s busiest intersections has improved, the bots are a bit bulky to just be sitting there in the middle of a busy intersection; plus, outside of directing traffic, they serve no other purpose.
But the government likes them, as they’re bringing in some much-needed revenue through tickets so, for the foreseeable future at least, these bots will stay where they are.
Learn more in the two-and-a-half-minute report below, which was put together by CCTV Africa:
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