--- title: "China Straps Loudspeakers to Robot Dog So It Can Scream at People to Stay Home" description: "A robot dog in Shanghai, China, is roaming the streets barking COVID-19 safety instructions through a loudspeaker crudely strapped to its back." date: "2022-04-04" modified: "2022-04-04" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/china-loudspeakers-robot-dog-stay-home" categories: - "Robot Dogs" - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "china" - "covid" - "robot dog" - "the digest" --- # China Straps Loudspeakers to Robot Dog So It Can Scream at People to Stay Home ![A robot dog in Shanghai, China, is roaming the streets barking COVID-19 safety instructions through a loudspeaker crudely strapped to its back.]() *\Image: JayinShanghai via Twitter\* ## Stay Home A robot dog in Shanghai, China, is roaming the streets barking COVID-19 safety instructions through a loudspeaker crudely strapped to its back, amid one of the tightest lockdowns the city has faced since the beginning of the pandemic. Videos [widely circulating online]() show the small black quadruped scuttling down an empty city street while blaring out instructions via a megaphone loosely slung around its back with what appears to be black and yellow caution tape. A dystopian nightmare or a cute demonstration of public health tech? We'll let you decide on that one. https://twitter.com/JayinShanghai/status/1508859419358019587 ## Locked Down Shanghai is currently facing one of its most serious waves of confirmed cases of COVID yet. The city has been in full lockdown [since the end of March](), with a new subvariant of the Omicron variant driving a spike in illness. Robot dogs aren't the only machines patrolling streets there. Chinese officials have also reportedly used drones that also told residents to stay at home, [according to *The Times*](). According [to *Reuters*](), residents aren't even allowed to leave their homes to take out their trash. Despite the strict lockdown measures, Shanghai reported [less than 8,000 asymptomatic cases]() and 438 symptomatic cases on April 3, a far cry from much more severe past outbreaks of COVID in other parts of the world. Whether a robot dog with a loudspeaker will prevent those numbers from rising exponentially remains to be seen — but we'll wager a guess and say it won't exactly have a very big impact, if any. **READ MORE:** [A robot dog issuing COVID-19 safety instructions is roaming the streets of locked down Shanghai]() \[*Insider*\] **More on robot dogs:** *[New York is Deploying Robot Dogs to Fight Fires Now]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()