Hacked crosswalk buttons play spoofed voices of tech billionaires

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Several crosswalk buttons in cities, including Redwood City and Palo Alto, appear to have been hacked, playing prank audio messages that imitate the voices of tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

In Redwood City, one crosswalk button was reprogrammed to play a spoofed message resembling the voice of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, referencing artificial intelligence. 

Videos of the altered signals have been circulating widely on social media platforms such as TikTok and Reddit.

"It’s just so disorienting - it is very cool protest art. I have no idea how they did it or got into the system," said Amber Levine, a resident in Redwood City.

"I thought it was funny. I don’t condone hacking public services to have a humorous message... but I laughed about it," added Calvin McDonald, another Redwood City resident.

One pedestrian noted that Redwood City may have been selected due to its proximity to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative headquarters on Main Street.

Similar messages were also reportedly heard near Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park. The city of Menlo Park in a statement on Monday, said their city's crosswalks were not hacked. They said Caltrans operates the crosswalks that were hacked on El Camino Real. They said Caltrans is investigating the hack to avoid any future issues. A spokesperson for the city of Menlo Park said they are working with their crosswalk, push-button manufacturer to ensure they are not hacked in the future. 

In Palo Alto, city officials told KTVU on Saturday: "This morning, a City employee noted that the voice announcement feature of the crosswalk at the intersection of University Avenue and High Street was not functioning properly. It was later determined that 12 downtown intersections were similarly malfunctioning, and that tampering may have occurred on Friday. City staff have disabled the audible feature until further repairs can be made. Other traffic signals in the City were checked, and the impact is isolated. Signal operations are otherwise unaffected, and motorists are reminded to always exercise caution around pedestrians."

"I think it speaks to how the public should be more aware of what’s going on with AI and the consequences of our data ending up in centralized databases - especially when the government isn't necessarily under the democratic control that we'd hope to see. I don't mean the party, I mean the form government that we all subscribe to," said Nik Evitt, who works in Redwood City.

A popular TikTok video features a spoofed voice impersonating Elon Musk. The message begins with:

"Hello. This is Elon Musk. Welcome to Palo Alto — the home of Tesla engineering. You know they say money can’t buy happiness and OK, I guess that’s true. God knows I’ve tried. But it can buy a Cybertruck."

Redwood City issued a statement: "We are aware that the crosswalk signal was hacked, and that a neighboring city experienced a similar incident. Staff are actively working to investigate and resolve the issue as quickly as possible."

"I think it also speaks to how careful we should be with our infrastructure. I'd be interested to see what security features were actually on the stop lights," Evitt added.

While the incident has raised concerns about public infrastructure security, many social media users described the prank as humorous, amusing, and even oddly believable.