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San Francisco almost went forward with a controversial policy that would let police use killer robots.

Last week, a vote went in favour of allowing the use of robots in limited cases so as to protect human police on the frontline.

While the San Francisco police department said it had no plans to arm the robots with guns, they did want to be able to put explosives on them and use them to “contact, incapacitate or disorient dangerous or armed suspects when lives are at risk,” notes NBC Bay Area.

But it looks like we will have to wait longer for the great robot apocalypse as the city’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to explicitly ban the use of robots for deadly force.

They gathered on Monday outside City Hall to urge the board to change course, chanting and holding signs with phrases like, “We all saw that movie… No Killer Robots.”

One supervisor who had joined in told his colleagues that the public hadn’t been given enough time to voice their concerns about such a pressing issue, AKA being allowed to deploy robots that can kill people, per Sky News:

Supervisor Dean Preston…said: “The people of San Francisco have spoken loud and clear: there is no place for killer police robots in our city.

“We should be working on ways to decrease the use of force by local law enforcement, not giving them new tools to kill people.”

The vote was the result of a new state law that requires police departments to inventory military-grade equipment and seek approval for its use, per HuffPost.

As far as America goes on the matter, only San Francisco and Oakland have spoken about using lethal robots as part of that law.

Oakland police wanted to arm robots with shotguns but ended up going for pepper spray in the face of public disapproval.

Although the vote was a unanimous no for lethal robots in San Francisco, the issue has been sent back to a committee for further discussion.

In the coming days, a new vote to let police use robots in a lethal manner in limited cases could emerge.

[sources:skynews&nbcbayarea&huffpost]