He’s not great at handshakes, but the robot that’s part of a pilot program for security in Montgomery County parking garages in Maryland is expected to do some meet and greets with the public as part of a public education campaign.
The Montgomery County Department of Transportation’s pilot program using “Parker” had not yet been made public when it was first reported by Fox 5.
That report prompted a number of questions from members of the Montgomery County Council who peppered Montgomery County DOT staff, including Director Chris Conklin, about the plans for the 420-pound robot that travels at about 3 miles per hour on its patrols.
Conklin told the members of the county council: “We do not yet know how effective this type of technology will be, but are interested in trying it out and seeing what kind of data we get, what kind of response we get, what kind of response there is.”
Parker will be performing duties at the Town Square parking garage along Ellsworth Drive in downtown Silver Spring.
Conklin said the garage’s size, with 1,200 spaces and 9,000 monthly customers, makes it a good spot for the pilot.
“It’s outside, which means that the communications with this device would work better than if it were below-grade structure,” he said.
Council members had plenty of questions about Parker’s abilities, noting that the robot travels at a rate no faster than a walking pace, according to Conklin.
Council member Dawn Luedtke had questions about how nimble Parker would be compared to, say, a robot called Marty that has been used in grocery stores like Giant. Luedtke said she had been shopping when she watched Marty “take out several endcap displays,” and she wondered, “If Parker is crashing into parked vehicles in the parking garage, we may, in fact, have some liability issues there with respect to vehicle damage.”
Parker is manufactured by Knightscope, Inc., and Conklin said, “We haven’t seen anything like that so far.”
“He’s not going to race out of the way of something. He can amble the way of something as anybody can at three miles per hour,” Conklin added.
Conklin added that Parker uses a LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, navigation system to get around.
Council member Natali Fani-González, who spotted the robot in a garage prior to any public notification, said one of the things that concerned her was the fact the county’s DOT logo was not clearly visible. She also commented on how slow Parker moves.
“Parker was so slow. There were like three cars behind him because he was going so slowly that he was backing up traffic,” she said.
The cost of the pilot, at $90,000, and the limitations of Parker’s ability to cover certain areas of the parking garages gave Council member Andrew Friedson pause.
“I am concerned about the fact that this is a solution that doesn’t address what I think are among the bigger concerns — which are stairwells in parking garages,” he said.
He noted that he’d want more information on that issue. Friedson also asked about the comparison of costs when weighing Parker against adding more security cameras in the garages.
“I think we all acknowledge the rollout wasn’t very good,” Friedson said.
“This should have happened at the front end. It would have been helpful to us, it would have been helpful to the community, it would have been helpful to Parker.”
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