In California, some pedestrian crossings south of San Francisco were targeted by hackers. Fake messages impersonating Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg were heard from pedestrian crossings in Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and Redwood City.
Authorities announced that the voice-guided systems were disabled and an investigation has been launched. Normally providing alerts like "walk" or "wait," the systems delivered unexpected messages over the weekend.
In the recordings, Musk's voice was imitated, offering a Tesla Cybertruck in exchange for a friendship offer. Another fake recording, supposedly from Zuckerberg, featured the phrase "Real friends call me The Zuck."
One of the fake messages imitating Musk greeted people in Palo Alto, saying, "They say money can't buy happiness... I think it's true. God knows, I've tried." Another Zuckerberg imitation mentioned "integrating AI into every aspect of your consciousness."
The affected crossings were shut down. California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) spokesperson Pedro Quintana stated that about 10 crossings in Menlo Park and Palo Alto were affected and their manual buttons were disabled, switching to a timer system.
Meghan Horrigan-Taylor from the Palo Alto City Hall reported similar interventions at at least 12 crossings in the downtown area, noting the issue was detected on Saturday, likely occurring on Friday.
Both tech billionaires have not made public statements regarding the incident. Authorities are investigating how the voice systems were hijacked, with the issue limited to just a few crossings and no other signaling systems compromised.
