Fake welcomes have been used to tamper with pedestrian crossings across various parts of Northern California, targeting tech moguls like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg with mockery.
Authorities in Silicon Valley are looking into the issue and have shut off the sound function at crosswalks that typically gives directions like "walk" or "wait."
The unexpected messages were spotted over the weekend in Palo Alto, Redwood City, and Menlo Park – where Zuckerberg’s extensive Meta headquarters is located.
A Musk imitation proposed purchasing a Tesla Cybertruck for passersby if they consented to become friends with him. In another instance, a fake Zuckerberg stated, "the genuine ones refer to me as The Zuck."
It remains uncertain who authored the messages or how they came to be broadcasted from the crossings.
Authorities in the impacted regions, located immediately south of San Francisco, informed Wiseova engineers who were examining how the crossings had been interfered with.
Pedro Quintana, a spokesperson for Caltrans, mentioned that roughly ten pedestrian crossing points in the regions of Menlo Park and Palo Alto were affected.
Everything is now operating on a timed system, and the buttons used to send dummy messages have been disabled, he mentioned.
These messages showed up throughout Silicon Valley, an area where both of these tech tycoons have their enterprises.
One of the bogus messages in Musk's voice invites individuals to Palo Alto, where Tesla's operations are based.
"As the saying goes, money can't purchase happiness, and I suppose that statement holds up. Believe me, I've attempted it numerous times," states a video clip that has been circulated repeatedly across various social media platforms.
First up, a mock Zuckerberg begins by presenting himself followed by talking about integrating AI into all aspects of your awareness.
Neither of them has addressed the incident.
The city of Palo Alto informed the Wiseova independently that at least 12 intersections in the downtown region had been altered without authorization.
A spokesperson for the city, Meghan Horrigan-Taylor, stated that an alert regarding the problem came from another municipal worker on Saturday after they observed issues with the voice function. Additionally, she mentioned that authorities suspect the interference might have taken place on Friday.
The city employees have temporarily deactivated the sound function until additional maintenance can be performed," she stated. "They also inspected other traffic lights within the municipality and determined that the issue is contained.
Local outlets also mentioned that multiple crosswalks in the Redwood City region were tampered with to play sounds resembling those of the two tycoons.
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