WALTHAM, Massachusetts — Hundreds of employees at Boston Dynamics, the Waltham-based maker of the four-legged Spot robot, petitioned company leadership in early September to cancel a sale of the robots to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to WBUR, which obtained the petition and first reported on it this week, and The Boston Globe, which also reported on the petition.

Source: WBUR and The Boston Globe, via Startup Fortune

The petition gathered close to 300 signatures, though a Boston Dynamics spokesperson noted that nearly half came in marked anonymous, the reports said. The company employs more than 1,500 people. In the petition, employees wrote that the sale "presents us as working directly with ICE" and, in their words, "We cannot be proud of working at BD when that work is being used by a government agency that brutalizes civilians, including some of our own colleagues" — that is the petition's allegation and wording, not a finding by any court or agency.

Source: Vector Wire, summarising WBUR and The Boston Globe

The $1.3 million contract, finalized in September, covers four Spot robots supplied through a third-party Connecticut company, Radeco, the reports said. The modified robot, nicknamed Cerberus, is fitted with a robotic arm, a thermal camera and sensors built to detect radiation and explosive materials, and is meant for Homeland Security Investigations agents checking tunnels, crawl spaces and other confined places along the border for drugs, trafficking victims or contraband. ICE has said the robots would provide "real-time situational awareness in hazardous, confined, or tactically uncertain environments" before agents are sent in.

Source: Vector Wire, summarising WBUR and The Boston Globe

The dispute has also moved outside the company. Local activist groups protested outside Boston Dynamics' headquarters on October 15, demanding, among other things, that the company pull the software licence that would allow ICE to operate the machines, and asking Massachusetts to rescind a $25 million tax credit awarded to the company in June, the Waltham Times reported.

Source: Waltham Times, Oct. 17, 2026