“Please, just leave me here.” Photo: @bilalfarooqui

The Knightscope security robot was supposed to patrol the Georgetown Waterfront, a ritzy shopping-and-office complex along the Washington Harbour in D.C. But the pressure was too much for the rolling robot, which can turn, beep, and whistle in order to maintain order. It rolled into fountain and drowned itself on Monday.

Our D.C. office building got a security robot. It drowned itself.



We were promised flying cars, instead we got suicidal robots. pic.twitter.com/rGLTAWZMjn — Bilal Farooqui (@bilalfarooqui) July 17, 2017

The Knightscope security robot has pros and cons. It’s a good deal for any place that wants something patrolling an area on the cheap. It’ll roll around malls or parking lots, with rental prices starting at $7 per hour — 25 cents less than the federal minimum wage. Uber uses it to patrol certain parking lots.

On the downside, it’s has been knocked over by a drunk man. Before that, it knocked down and ran over a 16-month-old boy. It looks like some The Fly–type experiment between R2D2 and a Dalek. And apparently it has a tendency toward self-harm.