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By News from Elsewhere…
…media reports from around the world, found by BBC Monitoring
Two robots have already been installed in capital city Kinshasa
An “intelligent” traffic cop robot has been installed in the city of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it appears.
Local residents seem enthusiastic about the robot, which replaces Lubumbashi’s traffic police and also has surveillance cameras to observe traffic offences, regional broadcaster Nyota says. It comes the year after two similar solar-powered robots were set up at intersections in the capital city Kinshasa, attracting attention at the time.
However, there are some worries about whether the robots will be maintained properly, given that many of Lubumbashi’s traffic lights have fallen into disrepair, UN-sponsored Radio Okapi reports.
The structure was developed by the organisation Women Technologies, which aims to encourage female engineers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Head of the group, Therese Izay Kirongozi, now hopes other countries will follow suit. She would, for example, like to see these “robots Made in Congo” in New York. “That’s my dream. I dream big,” she recently told Radio Okapi.
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