While there’s much discussion about how robots will one day replace humans in many different types of jobs, that day may still be a long time in coming, at least in the security field, following an incident between a security robot and a drunk man in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Forty-one-year-old Jason Sylvain is alleged to have knocked down a robot that was built to prevent crime near Terra Bella and Linda Vista Avenue in Mountain View. The robot, a five-foot tall, 300-pound Knightscope K5 model, was patrolling a shopping center at the time. Sylvain, for reasons unknown, decided to punch the nearly defenseless robot to the ground — nearly defenseless in that it is able to spin in a circle and whistle should it feel it is under attack.

“I think this is a pretty pathetic incident because it shows how spineless the drunk guys in Silicon Valley really are because they attack a victim who doesn’t even have any arms,” Mountain View resident Eamonn Callon told ABC7.

Despite its inability to fight back against drunken aggressors, Knightscope spun the abject failure of its robot as a positive, with a spokesman saying that “it’s a testament to the technology that police caught the aggressor and booked in him jail.” To be fair to the company, the K5 is only designed to alert security guards to disturbances and detect known shoplifters with its camera, not to provide physical security against local drunks who like to use it as a punching bag.

Although the robot lacks defenses, it apparently is can inflict damage. Another unit ran over and injured a 16-month-old child at a Stanford Shopping Center in 2016.

For those concerned about the welfare of the robot, it apparently suffered only minor scratches and is back on the beat defending the citizens of Silicon Valley. Sylvain has been charged with prowling and public intoxication, though it’s not clear from reports whether he will be charged with robot assault at a later date.

Photo: Knightscope/ YouTube