SF startup is testing robots in Airbnbs, and trashing them, lawsuit claims
SF startup is testing robots in Airbnbs, and trashing them, lawsuit claims
旧金山初创公司被指在 Airbnb 民宿内秘密测试机器人，并造成严重损坏
The reservation request didn’t seem out of the ordinary: Eight colleagues visiting the Bay Area for work were looking for an Airbnb with reliable Wi-Fi. 这份预订请求看起来并无异常：八名同事因公前往湾区，正在寻找一处拥有稳定 Wi-Fi 的 Airbnb 民宿。
But at check-in time April 12, a Ring camera captured footage of people moving large, black cases into Sean Donovan’s home in San Francisco. Later that night, the security system was shut off. 但在 4 月 12 日入住时，Ring 摄像头拍到有人将几个巨大的黑色箱子搬进了肖恩·多诺万（Sean Donovan）位于旧金山的家中。当晚晚些时候，家里的安防系统被关闭了。
Two days later, Donovan stopped by the house to take out the trash. He looked through a window and saw black cables taped to the walls. A man was typing on a laptop sitting next to what appeared to be a robot. 两天后，多诺万顺道回家倒垃圾。他透过窗户看到墙上贴着黑色电缆，一名男子正坐在一个看起来像是机器人的物体旁敲击笔记本电脑。
When his guests checked out 11 days later, the house was a mess, Donovan claims. Glasses and dishes had been removed from kitchen cabinets and left elsewhere. The dishwasher, refrigerator, and washing machine were scratched. Dishwasher racks were bent and removed. Wooden furniture was scratched and stained. Bathroom tiles were chipped. A shoe rack and several pairs of shoes were missing from a locked bedroom closet. 多诺万称，11 天后当客人们退房时，家里已是一片狼藉。厨房橱柜里的杯盘被挪到了别处；洗碗机、冰箱和洗衣机上布满划痕；洗碗机架子被弄弯并拆除；木制家具被刮花并留下污渍；浴室瓷砖出现缺口。此外，一个锁着的卧室衣柜里，鞋架和几双鞋也不翼而飞。
“What the hell is going on here?” Donovan recalled thinking. “这到底是怎么回事？”多诺万回忆起当时的想法。
After scouring the damage and conducting a bit of online sleuthing, he thinks he figured it out. In a lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court Tuesday, Donovan alleges that employees of the Bot Company rented his home “under false pretenses” to conduct prototype testing on robots they’re training to do household chores. 在仔细检查损坏情况并进行了一番网络调查后，他认为自己找到了答案。在周二向旧金山高等法院提交的诉讼中，多诺万指控“Bot Company”的员工以“虚假借口”租用了他的房子，目的是对其正在训练的家务机器人进行原型测试。
Founded by alums of Tesla and the autonomous vehicle company Cruise, the San Francisco startup has received hundreds of millions in venture capital funding and is valued at $2 billion, according to the tech research platform Sacra. The Bot Company did not respond to requests for comment. 据科技研究平台 Sacra 显示，这家旧金山初创公司由特斯拉和自动驾驶公司 Cruise 的前员工创立，已获得数亿美元的风险投资，估值达 20 亿美元。Bot Company 未回应置评请求。
Donovan is seeking $12,383.50 for damage to his home and belongings and for lost income he believes he would have received had the company correctly booked the property for commercial use. He is suing the Bot Company but not the individuals who rented the property. 多诺万要求赔偿 12,383.50 美元，用于补偿房屋及财物损失，以及他认为如果该公司按商业用途正确预订房源本应获得的收入。他起诉的是 Bot Company，而非租房的个人。
Through his own research, Donovan concluded that the guests at his home worked for the Bot Company. The Standard has been unable to verify their employment status. “The dishonesty is really what upsets me the most,” he said. “If they had come straight up, ‘Hey, we would like to rent your house for testing of our robot,’ then we could have come to an agreement. But it’s the lying and the misrepresentation that makes me feel violated.” 通过调查，多诺万断定住在他家的客人是 Bot Company 的员工。《标准报》（The Standard）目前无法核实他们的雇佣状态。“最让我生气的是这种不诚实，”他说，“如果他们直说‘嘿，我们想租你的房子测试机器人’，我们本可以达成协议。但正是这种谎言和欺骗让我感到被冒犯了。”
It appears that he’s not the only Bay Area resident who has been duped. Three of the guests connected to the April 12-25 booking for Donovan’s home have received negative reviews from at least 12 other Airbnb hosts alleging they damaged the property and personal belongings, failed to clean up, exceeded the limit on the number of guests, or violated other house rules during their stays. 看来他并不是唯一被蒙蔽的湾区居民。与多诺万家 4 月 12 日至 25 日预订相关的三名客人，此前已收到至少 12 位其他 Airbnb 房东的差评，指控他们在入住期间损坏房产和个人物品、不打扫卫生、超额入住或违反其他房屋守则。
The owner of an 1896 Victorian in Ingleside told The Standard he rented his home to three of the guests linked to the booking at Donovan’s house. When he returned home after the group’s six-night stay in March, he said, there were scuff marks on the walls and nicked paint on doorframes. A refrigerator shelf was cracked, and a broken glass or dish had been left in the garbage disposal. A wooden nightstand drawer was chipped. Cups and plates were in the wrong places. It looked like the furniture had been moved around. 一位住在英格尔赛德（Ingleside）的 1896 年维多利亚式住宅业主告诉《标准报》，他曾将房子租给与多诺万家预订相关的三名客人。他说，在这一行人 3 月份入住六晚后，他回到家发现墙上有擦痕，门框上的油漆有磕碰。冰箱架子裂了，垃圾处理器里留着碎玻璃或碎盘子，木制床头柜抽屉有缺口，杯盘摆放位置混乱，家具看起来也被挪动过。
“Sorry :( Did my best!” said a pithy message the group left on a whiteboard on his scuffed-up dining table. “抱歉 :( 我尽力了！”这群人在他那张被刮花的餐桌上的白板上留下了一句简短的留言。
“I just kind of assumed they might have had a party,” said the owner, who requested anonymity for privacy. But then a neighbor told him they had seen people bringing big black boxes into the house, so the owner thought maybe they had filmed a movie. “The robot thing kind of makes sense now,” the host said. “我当时以为他们可能开了派对，”出于隐私要求匿名的业主说。但后来邻居告诉他，曾看到有人往屋里搬大黑箱子，所以他以为他们是在拍电影。“现在看来，机器人那件事就说得通了，”这位房东说。
He spent a week cleaning and making repairs. He filed a claim with Airbnb for the damages, but the company rejected it, he said, citing his lack of before-and-after photos. The group of guests never responded to his message about the damage, he said. 他花了一周时间进行清洁和维修。他向 Airbnb 提交了损坏赔偿申请，但被公司拒绝了，理由是他缺乏入住前后的对比照片。他说，这群客人从未回复过他关于损坏赔偿的消息。
Like Donovan, the Ingleside homeowner said he would have been OK with a company renting his house to test robots had the employees been upfront about it. “If they’re trying to better the lives of humans with robots, I’m all for that,” he said. “I think there’s a good future in that, but they don’t need to be all sneaky about it.” 和多诺万一样，这位英格尔赛德的业主表示，如果员工们坦诚相待，他并不介意公司租用他的房子来测试机器人。“如果他们试图用机器人改善人类生活，我完全支持，”他说，“我认为这有很好的前景，但他们没必要搞得这么鬼鬼祟祟。”
Other negative reviews cited similar damage, though it’s unclear if these owners suspected there was a robotic culprit. “Most of my hardwood kitchen cabinets were scratched/gouged after their stay,” a host in Burlingame wrote on Airbnb in February. “There were also some black streaks on my walls and baseboards. During their stay, they brought multiple large plastic cases and boxes at various times which I suspect caused the damage.” 其他差评也提到了类似的损坏，尽管尚不清楚这些房东是否怀疑有“机器人”作祟。一位伯林格姆（Burlingame）的房东在 2 月份的 Airbnb 评价中写道：“他们住过后，我大部分硬木厨房橱柜都被划伤或凿坏了。墙壁和踢脚线上还有一些黑色条纹。在入住期间，他们多次带入多个大型塑料箱和盒子，我怀疑这就是造成损坏的原因。”