Raleigh police are eyeing a futuristic proposal that could bring more patrol cars to downtown streets — ones that can drive themselves.

The department was approached by a nonprofit earlier this year and pitched on an “autonomous police vehicle,” according to Raleigh Police Chief Rico Boyce.

“It adds a sense of safety,” Boyce told the Raleigh City Council during a retreat in September. “When [people] see a patrol vehicle go by, it deters crime.”

The chief mentioned the cars at the tail-end of a presentation that included updates on the city’s public safety efforts and downtown crime statistics.

Boyce appeared enthusiastic about the program, telling the council that RPD was likely “looking at” limiting the cars to a small, pre-set route downtown.

The cars — pitched by nonprofit Policing Lab — would feed real-time camera footage back to RPD’s crime center, where detectives would monitor the video and dispatch units in the event of a crime or disturbance, Boyce explained.

Autonomous cars would not replace police, chief says

The potential technology comes as Raleigh police face dwindling staffing numbers, with a goal of adding 69 new officer positions over the next three years to help cut response times.

But the driverless cars wouldn’t replace officers, Boyce said. Instead, they would enhance RPD’s presence across the city.

“It’s just going to augment what we’re already doing here in the city of Raleigh,” Boyce said.

In October 2025, the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office became the first jurisdiction in the country to adopt self-driving vehicles into their fleet through its own partnership with Policing Lab. But the cars remain a rarity for local law enforcement — no other departments have launched self-driving vehicles in the past year.

Boyce pointed to Miami-Dade’s pilot program with Policing Lab as an example of the vehicles’ success.

“[Policing Lab] came to Raleigh back in February this year, and they looked at our greenways, and they looked at our downtown grid and said Raleigh is perfect for this technology,” Boyce told the council.

Council comparisons to ‘Robocop,’ ‘Transformers’

The proposed technology drew some amusement from City Council members in September — who likened the technology to that of “Robocop,” the “Transformers” franchise and robotaxi company Waymo. Some questioned whether a driverless police car would really help deter crime.

“I wonder if it would be diminishing return, and people would be like ‘Oh that’s [just] the Waymo police car,’... so they would know it was an unmanned vehicle,” said council member Megan Patton.

In an email to The News & Observer, Lt. David Davis said RPD is “only gathering” information about the proposed technology and will be keeping an eye on the “outcomes” of Miami-Dade’s pilot program.

But the technology could serve as a “force multiplier” for the agency, Davis added, with police “potentially” using it on streets and greenways in the future.

“As an organization, we are always researching and monitoring emerging technologies being implemented by law enforcement agencies across the country,” Davis wrote in an email. “It is also routine for companies to present new technologies and concepts to RPD for consideration.”

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