Designed by Carl Archambeault, a graduate of the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, the Scarab fuses two ideas widely used by the military -- laser targeting and autonomous drones -- with the goal of aiding law enforcement by taking a dangerous, high-speed chase out of the hands of flesh-and-blood police officers. Essentially, a cop could "tag" a speeding vehicle using laser targeting technology, then employ the Scarab drone vehicle (which could be stationed by the side of the road or towed behind a moving cop car) to take care of the pursuit, much in the way a Predator drone takes care of reconnaissance and/or bombing missions in the place of manned aircraft.

Sounds good in theory, but the fundamental idea is that, once drivers realize they can't shake the thing, they'll pull over to the side of the road and wait patiently for the cop to show up and do the necessary ticketing or arresting.

I guess this would work for regular speeders -- drivers who realize they've been caught and want to get the process over with, so as to get to where they're going. But for high-speed pursuits -- the Scarab's purported purpose -- this isn't going to fly. I mean, hasn't the designer seen a single episode of "Cops"? Anyone crazy or desperate enough to try to flee from police isn't going to stop for a robot. Period. The bot may be able to track the vehicle, which is a good thing, but the cops still have to do the dangerous legwork. Archambeault, though, does stipulate that the Scarab could be equipped with an electromagnetic pulse generator or other vehicle-disabling technology -- which I suppose would do the job, but why not skip the middle man and simply give the cops the same tech?