--- title: "NYC Mayor Defends Robodog Deployed in Garage Collapse" description: "New York recently deployed a robot dog to the scene of a catastrophe to uncover a body — and according to the city's mayor, this rules." date: "2023-04-27" modified: "2023-04-27" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nyc-mayor-defends-robodog" categories: - "Robot Dogs" - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "nyc" - "nypd" - "robodog" - "the digest" --- # NYC Mayor Defends Robodog Deployed in Garage Collapse ![New York recently deployed a robot dog to the scene of a catastrophe to uncover a body— and according to the city's mayor, this rules.]() *\Image: FDNY\* ## Digital Dog-sters New York recently deployed a robot dog to the scene of a catastrophe to uncover a body— and according to the city's [unpopular mayor](), this dystopian factoid is good, actually. In a [press conference](), New York City Mayor Eric Adams hailed the FDNY's Boston Dynamics-developed and Dalmatian-painted "Digidog," which last week uncovered the one person who died in a Lower Manhattan garage collapse, as an exciting example of next-generation law enforcement technology. "Some people call them toys," Adams said. "This is not playtime. This is real time. And this is an administration that is not going to be fearful of using everything possible to save the lives of New Yorkers and to save the lives of first responders." https://twitter.com/Bonniezilla/status/1648457234370940929 ## Much Praise While the robot dog did indeed uncover the body of a person killed in the garage collapse, this horn-tooting is by no means unprecedented, and was the [second time this month]() that Adams took to his mayoral pulpit to laud the expensive innovation that [freaked so many people out]() when the NYPD used it that [literally had to cancel it]() before this latest rebooting of the program. "Digidog is out of the pound," Adams said during a press conference in Times Square earlier in April. "Digidog is now part of the toolkit that we are using." "A few loud people were opposed to it and we took a step back," Adams said in that pre-collapse presser. "That is not how I operate. I operate on looking at what's best for the city." Those "few loud people" were apparently weirded out when the NYPD began trotting the [expensive digidogs]() out back in 2021, before Adams was elected. Before it was "[put down]()," the robot was even [used in the arrest of an armed subject](), which, yes, is a pretty freaky concept. Adams noted later in his most recent robodog-boosting speech that the FDNY's Dalmatian-spotted version, named "Bergh," is proof of what New York can do if only the city refuses to kowtow to haters. "We've... allowed other municipalities to outpace us and to out-use technology because we were concerned about the small number of people who are afraid of change," the mayor said. "We are not. We will use this to benefit and safeguard the people of the cities." That's one way to respond to people concerned about legally-sanctioned robots roaming the streets of New York. **More on NYC robots:** [*Researchers Pleasantly Surprised That Only One New Yorker Attacked Their Cute Trash-Collecting Robots*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()