The continued march forward of automation and, increasingly, artificial intelligence has certainly made for good headline fodder over the last few years. You’ll find countless articles highlighting the ways in which the tech will be taking over from humans and even how certain sci-fi dystopias are nearing thanks to certain advancements.
Most recently, a true sci-fi classic from the 1980s has landed in the headlines thanks to some new automated technology. With the AI-driven police car, the PUG is being hailed as Miami’s real RoboCop. Looking at the iconic film and what will soon be rolling around Miami’s streets, the comparison seems somewhat hyperbolic.
A Subversive Masterpiece about Regaining Humanity
Few films stand the test of time on aesthetics alone: a film’s longevity is invariably down to its writing and what it has to say to the audience. RoboCop certainly offers up an iconic character design, a bleak setting, and some wonderfully absurd set pieces, but throughout, it’s a thrilling examination of a man regaining his humanity.
It’s this that has enabled RoboCop to endure as a hit name to this day, sprawling from the 1980s big screen into a welcomed 2022 director’s cut theatrical run and beyond.
Even in 2024, RoboCop was getting new content to appease the fans. This came in the form of RoboCop: Cash Collect arriving at the top online slot sites. In this rendition, players join RoboCop on the streets of Detroit to take out crime and secure wins. While a strong and popular slot in its own right, the official elements wouldn’t be as much of a draw if it weren’t for the work put in by the film.
As it goes, it’s quite lucky that we even got RoboCop the way we did. Paul Verhoeven wasn’t overly familiar with making English-language films at the time. Luckily, his wife read the script he was set to pass on, explained how it is about losing your identity and finding it again, and that spurred the Dutch filmmaker on to create this would-be classic.
Merely a Reference that Doesn’t Quite Land
The grand twisted premise of RoboCop is that a good police officer is unceremoniously executed and then rebuilt into the android, metal-plated RoboCop. Powered by the programming of a typical uncaring 80s corporation, as he experiences more of life, the humanity and identity of the human beneath the armour begin to emerge.
None of this will be the case with Miami’s so-called RoboCop. The autonomous police car powered by artificial intelligence is a pure computer program. The PUG or Police Unmanned Ground vehicle can launch drones, conduct surveillance with its 360-degree cameras, and perform thermal imaging scans.
Some liken it more to the ED-209, which is a menacing bipedal robot with artillery created by the same corporation behind RoboCop. Naturally, this too is very different from the PUG set to roll around Miami-Dade. Even RoboCop’s car wasn’t automated or AI-powered, simply being a Ford Taurus.
Miami-Dade is certainly looking to leverage automation and what would have been seen as sci-fi technology a handful of decades ago, but the PUG really won’t hit upon any of the more memorably apocalyptic elements of the original RoboCop film, despite what some headlines will have you believe.
