Though our bedrooms might remain safe from a cyber invasion, a series of viral social media videos are putting our parks in danger.
A video posted on Instagram by Austin-based media page @atxdose shows a pack of real dogs playing in a park with a robot dog. The robot is being operated just to the side by a man with a controller, who sent the pets into a frenzy chasing the real dogs in circles.
It’s straight out of Black Mirror: The dog even had a pink cowboy hat fastened to its head in true dystopian cherry-on-top fashion.
Two days ago, social media influencer Madison Humphrey posted a video to Instagram that shows what looks to be that same dog walking on a trail in Dallas. It’s wearing the same pink cowboy hat, this time showing off an abrupt walk on its hind legs.
It’s such a bizarre sight to behold, but it’s not the first time robot best friends have made headlines in Dallas.
In December 2022, AT&T collaborated with Ghost Robotics to create a dog covered in cameras and sensors. The company labeled them as “first responder robotic dogs,” with the capability of detecting bombs and dangerous radiation. These looked far more sinister than the dogs we saw online at the park, but we haven’t seen much from them since.
Just a few months ago, we tried a robotic food delivery service through Avride, an Austin-based autonomous vehicle company. Delivery robots were sent out from Salsa Limon in downtown Dallas to location-pinged phones through Uber Eats. Currently, the Avride robots are only available in Dallas at Salsa Limon and Bread Zeppelin.
But as radical as that service might’ve seemed, it’s still a menial task. The real dogs playing with a robot dog signal a far more dramatic change in earthly evolution, and likely one that we’re only just scratching the surface of.
