Crosswalk buttons along the mid-Peninsula were hacked last week so that when pressed, voices professing to be Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk began speaking.
Videos taken at locations in Redwood City, Menlo Park and Palo Alto showed various messages that began to play when crosswalk buttons were hit. The voices appeared to imitate how Zuckerberg and Musk sound.
In one video, taken on Saturday morning at the corner of Arguello Street, Broadway and Marshall Street in Redwood City, a voice claiming to be Zuckerberg says that “it’s normal to feel uncomfortable or even violated as we forcefully insert AI into every facet of your conscious experience. And I just want to assure you, you don’t need to worry because there’s absolutely nothing you can do to stop it.”
In another video, taken in downtown Palo Alto early on Saturday morning, a voice claiming to be Musk says that he would “like to personally welcome you to Palo Alto.”
“You know, people keep saying cancer is bad, but have you tried being a cancer? It’s f—— awesome,” the voice goes on to say.
Another video from downtown Palo Alto shows a voice impersonating Musk saying that he would give the listener a Cybertruck if they became his friend.
“You don’t know the level of depravity I would stoop to just for a crumb of approval,” the voice says. “I mean, let’s be real, it’s not like I had any moral convictions to begin with.”
Over in Menlo Park, a video taken near Meta’s headquarters shows a crosswalk signal with a voice identifying himself as “Zuck” stating how proud he is of “everything we’ve been building together.”
“From undermining democracy, to cooking our grandparents’ brains with AI slop, to making the world less safe for trans people, nobody does it better than us – and I think that’s pretty neat,” the voice says.
Some of the impacted crosswalk buttons in Palo Alto were no longer playing the messages on Saturday morning, one local resident reported.
City of Palo Alto spokesperson Meghan Horrigan-Taylor said on Saturday that city employees determined that 12 downtown intersections were impacted and have disabled the voice announcement feature on the crosswalks until repairs can be made. The tampering may have happened on Friday, Horrigan-Taylor said.
“Other traffic signals in the City were checked and the impact is isolated,” Horrigan-Taylor said. “Signal operations are otherwise unaffected, and motorists are reminded to always exercise caution around pedestrians.”
Redwood City Deputy City Manager Jennifer Yamaguma said on Monday that her city was aware of four locations where crosswalk signals were hacked.
“The unauthorized messages have since been disabled, and staff are evaluating ways to strengthen system protections,” Yamaguma said. “We also want to remind the public that tampering with City infrastructure, including crosswalk signals, is unlawful and poses a safety risk.”
Menlo Park spokesperson Kendra Calvert told this news organization that the affected crosswalks in Menlo Park are operated by the California Department of Transportation and that city-controlled crosswalks were not hacked.
Caltrans spokesperson Jeneane Crawford confirmed that crosswalks operated by the state transportation agency were impacted in Menlo Park and Palo Alto. Caltrans disabled the affected audio on Saturday morning, Crawford said.
“The pedestrian push buttons have been deactivated and crosswalks are currently operating on a timer,” Crawford said on Tuesday. “Caltrans is working with the supplier to determine a course of action so that the crosswalks are fully operational as quickly as possible.”
A Meta spokesperson referred questions to the cities with the impacted crosswalks. Tesla did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
