NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The FDNY showcased its new robot dog for Mayor Eric Adams at City Hall on Thursday.
The department bought two of the $75,000 drones from Boston Dynamics in March and hopes to use the machines for search and rescue missions.
Adams used the remote control to pilot the robot dog that the department has nicknamed Spot up and down the steps of City Hall.
The NYPD deployed the same model of robot dog at a public housing complex in 2021 and faced immediate backlash.
The police department was forced to cancel its lease and return their $94,000 toy after the public panned the robot as dystopian, superfluous and emblematic of overly aggressive policing.
Besides its utility as a firefighting tool, which remains to be seen as the FDNY has not yet deployed the robot, the city hopes to rehabilitate the drone’s image after the NYPD’s botched rollout.
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