In recent years, communities in San Francisco, Alameda County and Oakland have told their elected officials in no uncertain terms that they do not want drones with bombs or assault weapons or robots outfitted with lethal force roaming the streets of their town.
Now, Rep. Akilah Weber, an assembly member from San Diego, a certified ob-gyn, and the daughter of Secretary of State Shirley Weber, has brought a bill, AB 2681, to ban the manufacture, sale or use of weaponized remote vehicles in California.
Dr. Weber has been pressured by the Governor's office to remove California police departments from her bill. But she hasn't given in.
So we need your support now to back her up.
AB 2681 has an interesting history. It actually was not proposed by a civil or human rights organization. The bill was initiated by Boston Dynamics, the robotics manufacturer that among other things created "Spot, the robot dog".
Boston Dynamics, along with six other makers of robotics penned a 2022 open letter where they asked policy makers to help prevent the weaponization of their products, saying that the public needed to have trust in their technology, instead of being afraid of it.
A remote technology arms race will do many things including hurting their business, risking the acquisition of unmanned lethal weapons by non-state actors, and increasing police use of force.
We don't need to go down this road. Tell the California State Senate and Governor Newsom to support AB 2681 and ban weaponized drones and killer robots in California.
