Security Robots, Made by a Money-Losing Company, Are on the Rise in Portland

These might be the droids Portland is looking for.

Last week, Unico Properties LLC unveiled a new security robot to patrol the U.S. Bancorp Tower (aka Big Pink) on West Burnside Street, an epicenter of Portland blight.

The 5-foot-5, 420-pound droid, named Rob, is made by a Mountain View, Calif.-based company called Knightscope Inc. Rob is at least the third Knightscope bot to go on duty in the metro area. There’s another one at Legacy Health’s hospital in Gresham and a third at the Aloft Hotel at Cascade Station. That robot, named Robby, has been scouting for vandals since September 2022, Knightscope said in a press release at the time.

The “autonomous security robots” have cameras arranged on their bullet-shaped bodies that give them 360-degree visibility. They have heat sensors to detect potential threats and a two-way intercom to connect passersby (or perpetrators) with human security teams. They can read hundreds of license plates in a minute and be programmed to keep an eye out for known baddies, the company says.

“The robots are coming, and we’re growing,” Knightscope CEO William Santana Li said on The Big Biz Show, an investing program, earlier this year. “The market for crime will never collapse.”

Wags in Portland have been busy poking fun at the machines.

“It’s now safe to go downtown,” said one post on Reddit last week after Unico’s announcement.

“How long before it ends up in the river?” asked another skeptical Redditor.

“It’s probably at the bottom already, nestled in between a 1997 Altima and a Lime scooter,” replied another.

Li, the Nightscope CEO, says heaving his robots into the river will be tough because they are so heavy.

“If you’re trying to deal with criminals and terrorists, being small doesn’t work,” Li said during the Big Biz interview. “You want to have that physical presence.”

If Knightscope’s stock price is any indication, few investors expect droids to take over from human security guards en masse anytime soon. Knightscope shares, which trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market, closed at 61 cents today, down from $16 at the beginning of 2022, when the company first sold stock to the public.

Knightscope lost $15.6 million in the nine months ended Sept. 30, wider than the $14 million loss in the same period a year earlier, according to a regulatory filing.

On Dec. 6, Knightscope said president and chief financial officer Mallorie Burak would step down in January “to pursue other opportunities.” She has served as CFO for three years.

Two days before that, Knightscope disclosed it had retained a securities law firm to “investigate recent activities surrounding the company’s stock performance and to take whatever legal action necessary to prevent potential market participants from utilizing unlawful means to further hurt retail investors, including the recently published research papers by Capybara Research.”

Capybara is an investment firm that tries to make money by betting that a company’s shares will decline. So-called short sellers borrow shares in a company and sell them, betting they can buy them back at a lower price later, repay the loan, and keep the difference as a profit.

In July, Capybara put out a report on Knightscope that was critical of its prospects. “Knightscope claims their robots ‘fight crime’ but, in reality, are more like Roombas with cameras,” Capybara said.

Knightscope didn’t immediately reply to an email seeking comment.