The rise of the robots has been (slightly) dampened.
An autonomous 300-pound crime-fighting android tasked with patrolling an office building in Washington, D.C., met an untimely end on Monday — after it tumbled into a water fountain.
Twitter user Bilal Farooqui posted online a snap of the hapless machine’s demise:
The K5 machine, which Silicon Valley start-up Knightscope developed, was reportedly patrolling the Washington Harbour complex in Georgetown when it fell down steps and landed on its side in the water.
In a statement to The Washington Post, its creators noted that no one was injured in the “isolated event” and pledged to replace the ’droid within the next week. The company also posted this lighthearted tweet:
It was up to office workers to fish the heavy machine from the water:
HuffPost has reached for comment on what happened to the robot after the unfortunate incident.
But as Farooqui’s initial tweet went viral, other social media users chimed in ― with many poking fun at the robot’s sadly premature end to guard duty:
Support HuffPost
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.