Watch: ‘Police Robot’ Makes a Traffic Stop

Robots are taking wedding photos, stacking boxes, and delivering snacks. Now, it looks like they’ll soon be taking over the roads and making traffic stops.

A nonprofit research institute has developed a prototype of a robotic system designed to make traffic stops safer. The prototype “police robot” allows police officers to interact with a driver from their car, and even deploys spikes to prevent the driver from speeding away.

“Every year 16,915,140 drivers are pulled-over in traffic, 195,078 motorists have physical force used on them, 4,488 officers are assaulted, 89 of those motorists die, and 11 of those officers die,” said Senior Robotics Research Engineer at SRI International’s Applied Technologies and Science Department (ATSD) Ruben Brewer, who created the police robot. “With such dangerous interactions between people, maybe it’s time to send a robot in between them, one that can’t hurt or be hurt.”

The video shows that the robot is operated from inside the police car, and is equipped with a camera, and a printer that dispenses the traffic ticket. The next-generation prototype will feature stowing at the front of the car, access to both driver and passenger windows, and will have the ability to be operated from outside the police car via a mobile app.

According to Brewer’s description on the YouTube video, the robot is a “work in progress” that he started in his garage and now work on at SRI international. “It’s only part of the solution, but I hope one day it could save lives,” he said.

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