In brief
Several pedestrian crossings in northern California have been hacked to play comical impersonations of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, leaving officials scrambling to resolve the situation.
Officials in various cities around Silicon Valley are currently investigating a series of humorous hacks targeting pedestrian crossings. The instantly recognizable voices of tech titans Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg greeted passersby with cheeky messages, prompting local authorities to disable the audio functions of the affected crossings.Over the weekend, residents of Palo Alto, Redwood City, and Menlo Park, areas closely linked to the tech elite, were surprised when these pedestrian signals began broadcasting unusual messages. In one, an impersonator of Musk jokingly offered to purchase a Tesla Cybertruck for any pedestrian who would befriend him. In another eccentric message supposedly from Zuckerberg, he declared, "real ones call me The Zuck".While the origin of the bizarre messages remains unknown, officials confirmed they were investigating the tampering. Pedro Quintana, representing the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), reported that around ten crossings had been impacted, and that buttons allowing the messages to be played have since been deactivated with the systems reverting to a timer mode.The humor continued with one impersonated Musk video circulating on social media, welcoming people to Palo Alto, where Tesla operates. "You know, they say money can't buy happiness and... I guess that's true. God knows I've tried," said the parody. Meanwhile, the fictitious Zuckerberg's introduction led into a quirky discussion about integrating AI into people's daily lives.As the story developed, neither Musk nor Zuckerberg had publicly commented on the amusing incident. The city of Palo Alto revealed that at least 12 crossings downtown had experienced similar tampering. City spokeswoman Meghan Horrigan-Taylor noted that a staff member flagged the malfunction on Saturday, suggesting the hijinks may have begun the day prior. For now, officials have temporarily suspended the audible feature of affected crossings while they conduct further repairs. Authorities ensured that the issue was localized, with other traffic signals remaining unaffected.
