Pedestrian crosswalks across Silicon Valley in northern California are, funnily enough, mocking billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg after hackers programmed them to play fake messages.
The unexpected messages were heard in Palo Alto, Redwood City, and Menlo Park—home to Zuckerberg's expansive Meta headquarters. In one instance, a Musk impersonator offered passing pedestrians a Tesla Cybertruck in exchange for friendship.
One in Musk's voice says:
"You know, they say money can't buy happiness and... I guess that's true. God knows I've tried. But it can buy a Cybertruck, and that's pretty sick, right? Right?"
Another message, mimicking Zuckerberg, quipped, “Real ones call me The Zuck" and mentions how he is inserting AI "into every facet of your conscious experience."
MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow talked about it on her program.
And people loved it.
Authorities have launched an investigation but have yet to determine who created the spoof recordings or how they were uploaded to the crossings' systems. Officials told the BBC that engineers are actively investigating how the systems were compromised.
Pedro Quintana, a spokesperson for the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), said around 10 pedestrian crossings in the Menlo Park and Palo Alto areas were affected.
The audio feature on those crossings, which normally provides standard "walk" or "wait" instructions, has now been disabled. All signals are currently operating on a timer, and the buttons that previously triggered the rogue messages have been deactivated.
City of Palo Alto spokesperson Meghan Horrigan-Taylor told Business Insider that a city employee first noticed a malfunction in the voice announcement system at one crosswalk on Saturday morning. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that 12 additional crosswalks were experiencing the same issue.
Horrigan-Taylor said the apparent hack may have occurred on Friday. As a precaution, the voice announcement features at all affected crosswalks have been disabled until repairs can be made.
