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Navy Drone Wanders Into Restricted Airspace Around Washington
- daychilde 16y agoReminds me of an episode of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex...
- mikemol 16y agoYou're thinking of 2nd Gig.
- chopsueyar 16y agoI think it is cool that it is semi-autonomous. I don't think it is cool that the US military is using it for law enforcement operations in Central America. Can't wait until the US starts blanketing various countries with drones. Excellent precedent.
- Estragon 16y agoI understand Foucault observed that imperial countries tended to bring their methods of colonial control back to control their home populations, in a sense colonizing themselves. Similarly, it seems like it's only a matter of time before this ubiquitous surveillance and automated enforcement are used in developed, democratic countries.
- simonsarris 16y agoWell the British Empire isn't exactly as large as it was in its imperial days but London could be fairly accurately described as ubiquitously surveillanced, perhaps moreso with CCTV than mere (ha) UAVs would allow, since the CCTV cams permeate urban canopies (buildings).
- GFischer 16y agoI was impressed (not in a good way) by this news: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/web-used-to-track-woman-who-binned-cat/ http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/web-used-to-trac... CCTVs seem to be quite ubiquitous indeed.
- jrockway 16y agoCan't wait until the US starts blanketing various countries with drones. Excellent precedent. But when the drones invade the US, the gun nuts will finally have something to do!
- cma 16y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shape_of_Things_to_Come http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shape_of_Things_to_Come
- tomjen3 16y agoI wonder, how much damage could you actually do with that drone? I mean, if it isn't armed then there isn't much too this story - failures happen all the time.
- martey 16y agoA 600 lb helicopter landing on your house would do significant amounts of damage.
- hammmatt 16y agoOr a parking lot, street or intersection. Let's put that Chevy 'Like A Rock' slogan to the test!
- billswift 16y agoDepends on how concentrated the weight is and how hard it hits. Most roofs can handle a bunch of 200 pound roofers working on them, or tons of snow, without any difficulty.
- Groxx 16y agoBut failures don't always go for a 23-mile joy-ride into restricted airspace. That's kinda cool. As to damage, given the size, probably not a whole lot if it just died and fell. Might kill someone who's incredibly unlucky. But consider if it flew around at a really low altitude: power lines, people, windows, all in range of the blades. Given that it went 23 miles on its own, having working ground-avoidance software isn't an unreasonable assumption.
- inferno0069 16y agoFrom the article: it "was flying at 2,000 feet". I see no reason to assume it would have any ground-avoidance software besides flying higher if it detects it's near the ground.
- Groxx 16y ago
- maushu 16y agoAnd so skynet begins. I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.
- hammmatt 16y agoFunny joke. But I'm pretty sure this reinforces how far away our robot overlords still remain.
- drtse4 16y agoAdditional info on The Register: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1635807 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1635807
- Semiapies 16y agoUnmentioned in this story: what happened when a low-flying aircraft entered restricted airspace around DC? Did they already know it was this wayward drone, either by transponder or the drone's ground crew informing them?
- Poiesis 16y agoActually, this question was addressed by the best line in the story: The Navy did not describe the scene inside the ground station as operators sought to re-establish control with the drone.
- Semiapies 16y agoThe ground station was where the operators were controlling (or not, as it happened) the drone from. It wasn't the place air traffic was being monitored or where reactions to a blip in restricted airspace would be determined.