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Conveniently it's a single tree that catches fire with none nearby. Plus the drone is mere minutes away. What if it's densely packed brush and the drone is fu

by rmason 5y ago

Conveniently it's a single tree that catches fire with none nearby. Plus the drone is mere minutes away. What if it's densely packed brush and the drone is further away? Or a powerline touches off the fire setting hundreds of trees aflame? Or multiple lightning strikes touches off many fires in a wide area? This thing looks as if will be very expensive and work only some of the time.

lucasmullens 5y ago
Expecting something to work 100% of the time is far too high of a bar to set for fire prevention. If it helps it saves lives.
- vasco 5y ago
  That's not necessarily true. It may help and save no lives. It may not help.
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    It may cause fires...
shaftway 5y ago
I don't think this would even be able to put out a single tree catching fire. Generally the fire is too vertical and the extinguisher would land on the ground and not be activated by the heat, so it won't go off until flaming branches fall down, at which point the fire is too large.
- davidbanham 5y ago
  You’re referring to a canopy or crown fire. It depends on conditions, of course, but it usually takes time for enough heat to build up that a fire crowns. There’s generally a period where it will burn through the lower and mid stories and it spreads.
  - shaftway 5y ago
    In the area they show in their video it doesn't look like it'd take much for the trees at the edge of the clearing to go up in flames, and pretty fast too.
lumost 5y ago
Or the drone's battery/electronics light on fire.... There is no good reason why the drones themselves can't be the source of the fire.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  Exactly my worry. To get to reasonable flight times you need very energy dense batteries which are a potential source of ignition, and good luck putting that out.
Ancapistani 5y ago
My intuition says that in those cases, even partially extinguishing the fire would buy a bit of time, and in the meantime you’ve now got live aerial footage of the fire’s location and progress to better inform the people who are responding to it. … in other words, putting out the fire with the UAS is a “best case”, and may happen more often than you’d think, but really it’s mostly marketing. That doesn’t mean that the system doesn’t provide real value.
landemva 5y ago
It will be in great publicity videos, with FEMA kicking in funds for purchase grants. Local firefighters will have fun playing with new toys funded by further deficit spending.
onion2k 5y ago
This thing looks as if will be very expensive and work only some of the time. Something that works some of the time is significantly better than nothing, and if the times it works saves millions then the price is likely worth paying. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
- demadog 5y ago
  This is version 0.1 - it will get much better. Anything you can think of, they’ve thought of and it’s on their roadmap.
  - imoverclocked 5y ago
    Anything?! This implies they have thought of everything which is a dangerous assumption. I think it's important to ask questions, even (especially?) ones that seem obvious.
  - dymk 5y ago
    Lofty ideas, supported only by hope. People can dream up solutions as much as they want, doesn't mean it's going to work. 99% of startups fail, this one will be no exception to the stats. Sure, they might succeed, but there's no guarantee they'll make it past this super basic PoC.
    - onion2k 5y ago
      Lofty ideas, supported only by hope. They're a startup. That's what startups do. If you think they're wasting their time you're really on the wrong website right now.
      - klyrs 5y ago
        Most startups fail. Declaring any one a waste of effort is statistically justified. Alternative reason to read HN: a sadistic desire to watch people fail, and say that I told you so.
sacrosancty 5y ago
> This thing looks as if will be very expensive and work only some of the time. Can you identify a technology that didn't have that quality initially? Even a simple thing like a pencil - what a waste of money cutting a precision tube inside a stick and somehow installing a carbon rod, which wears out so fast you can't even finish a book without having to build a whole new one. Oh, and it randomly breaks while you're using it and requires special metal sharpening tools. If it was obviously cheap and reliable from a quick glance, it would have already been invented at a time before it was so obvious!

by rmason 5y ago

lucasmullens 5y ago

Expecting something to work 100% of the time is far too high of a bar to set for fire prevention. If it helps it saves lives.

vasco 5y ago
That's not necessarily true. It may help and save no lives. It may not help.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  It may cause fires...

shaftway 5y ago

I don't think this would even be able to put out a single tree catching fire. Generally the fire is too vertical and the extinguisher would land on the ground and not be activated by the heat, so it won't go off until flaming branches fall down, at which point the fire is too large.

davidbanham 5y ago
You’re referring to a canopy or crown fire. It depends on conditions, of course, but it usually takes time for enough heat to build up that a fire crowns. There’s generally a period where it will burn through the lower and mid stories and it spreads.
- shaftway 5y ago
  In the area they show in their video it doesn't look like it'd take much for the trees at the edge of the clearing to go up in flames, and pretty fast too.

lumost 5y ago

Or the drone's battery/electronics light on fire.... There is no good reason why the drones themselves can't be the source of the fire.

jacquesm 5y ago
Exactly my worry. To get to reasonable flight times you need very energy dense batteries which are a potential source of ignition, and good luck putting that out.

Ancapistani 5y ago

My intuition says that in those cases, even partially extinguishing the fire would buy a bit of time, and in the meantime you’ve now got live aerial footage of the fire’s location and progress to better inform the people who are responding to it. … in other words, putting out the fire with the UAS is a “best case”, and may happen more often than you’d think, but really it’s mostly marketing. That doesn’t mean that the system doesn’t provide real value.

landemva 5y ago

It will be in great publicity videos, with FEMA kicking in funds for purchase grants. Local firefighters will have fun playing with new toys funded by further deficit spending.

onion2k 5y ago

This thing looks as if will be very expensive and work only some of the time. Something that works some of the time is significantly better than nothing, and if the times it works saves millions then the price is likely worth paying. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

demadog 5y ago
This is version 0.1 - it will get much better. Anything you can think of, they’ve thought of and it’s on their roadmap.
- imoverclocked 5y ago
  Anything?! This implies they have thought of everything which is a dangerous assumption. I think it's important to ask questions, even (especially?) ones that seem obvious.
- dymk 5y ago
  Lofty ideas, supported only by hope. People can dream up solutions as much as they want, doesn't mean it's going to work. 99% of startups fail, this one will be no exception to the stats. Sure, they might succeed, but there's no guarantee they'll make it past this super basic PoC.
  - onion2k 5y ago
    Lofty ideas, supported only by hope. They're a startup. That's what startups do. If you think they're wasting their time you're really on the wrong website right now.
    - klyrs 5y ago
      Most startups fail. Declaring any one a waste of effort is statistically justified. Alternative reason to read HN: a sadistic desire to watch people fail, and say that I told you so.

sacrosancty 5y ago

> This thing looks as if will be very expensive and work only some of the time. Can you identify a technology that didn't have that quality initially? Even a simple thing like a pencil - what a waste of money cutting a precision tube inside a stick and somehow installing a carbon rod, which wears out so fast you can't even finish a book without having to build a whole new one. Oh, and it randomly breaks while you're using it and requires special metal sharpening tools. If it was obviously cheap and reliable from a quick glance, it would have already been invented at a time before it was so obvious!