quote a hypothetical Crime rate surgesNew York State and New York City officials launched a severe crackdown, police state style Promote improvements in the safety of urban subway systems. These include the controversial deployment of National Guard and state police forces to city tunnels and the recent installation of new surveillance systems.One potential solution to the criminal underground is Recently popular Evolv, a company designed by Mayor Eric Adams, is a company that sells artificial intelligence weapons detection scanners.
On Thursday, Adams held a press conference to announce the installation of new Evolv scanners in the city’s subway system. The devices are designed to find guns and knives. There’s just one problem, however: The CEO of the company behind the scanners recently admitted that they’re not really meant for subway systems.
“We don’t think the subway is suitable for us in particular,” said Peter George, chief executive of Evolv Technologies. In a recent call with reporters. “Both are for [concept of operations] and is located underground and interferes with railways – [subways are] It’s not a very good use case,” he reiterated. While George didn’t elaborate on why they wouldn’t be useful in this situation, it’s not a particularly good look for the mayor’s office.
To make matters worse, Evolv is being sued by some shareholders who accuse the company of exaggerating how well its equipment can actually detect weapons, 404 Media reports Friday. The class action lawsuit claims that some of the company’s marketing capabilities are “materially false and misleading because Evolv cannot reliably detect knives or firearms.” So, that’s not good. You can understand city officials’ desire to make residents feel safe, although some might say that having lots of surveillance equipment and heavily armed personnel in the MTA isn’t the smartest thing to do.
Gizmodo reached out to Evolv and the New York City Mayor’s Office for comment, and we will update this article when we hear back.