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Fastest camera drone vs. F1 car (ft. Max Verstappen) [video]
- thekevan 3y ago"You beat us in a drag race but that is unfair because that isn't the type of race an F1 car is designed for" Then proceeds to explain how a drone isn't designed for taking laps on a track.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago>designed specifically for the challenge of keeping up with the car at speeds of over 300kph. So using relatively inexpensive parts they built an artillery shell shaped drone that can travel at over 300 kmph ... for just one lap. Do you hear that? It's the sound of every military in the world ringing their phones. For context, commercial DJI drones are heavily used in Ukraine right now by both sides mostly for recon (and more), but since they're slow, they often get shot down by rifle/small arms fire form soldiers. However, if you could make them go 300+ kmph, even John Wick couldn't shoot them down while they do a recon lap.
- KineticLensman 3y agoNot John Wick perhaps, but a radar controlled machine gun
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoThey already have German Gepards with 35 × 228 mm radar guided auto-cannons to shoot down the Iranian Shahed drones, but those drones are much larger and easier to shoot down since they're 3.5m (11 ft) by 2.5m (8.2 ft), plus they cost almost $200k a pop. Using multi milion euro tracked vehicles firing expensive 35 × 228 mm ammo to shoot down drones the size of a Starbucks Venti costing less than and Apple Vision Pro is like using your AR-15 to shoot mosquitos. While I'm sure someone in Florida has already attempted that, it's the definition of asymmetric warfare.
- KineticLensman 3y ago> Using multi milion euro tracked vehicles firing expensive 35 × 228 mm ammo to shoot down drones the size of a Starbucks Venti costing less than and Apple Vision Pro is like using your AR-15 to shoot mosquitos. Yes. The Royal Navy has used £1.2M Sea Viper missiles to shoot down drones in the recent Red Sea conflict. They have also used their Phalanx guns to shoot down drones, which is much cheaper than the Sea Viper. > it's the definition of asymmetric warfare. Totally. My point though was that it is possible for modern counter measures to shoot down fast moving drones, even if John Wickes can't. IIRC Phalanx was used to shoot down incoming mortar rounds for base protection in Afghanistan.
- neom 3y agoSeems sad that the first thing I thought was "bet that would be hard to shoot down" - not sure if that's more of a reflection of me, or the state of affairs. That aside, if you'd told me when I was a teenager in the 90s that a fancy RC helicopter would go faster than an F1 car before I'm even an old man, not sure if I would have believed you, we've come a hell of a long way in drone tech - and that's impressive. Kudos to you drone engineer folks.
- lm28469 3y agoIt's already next to impossible to shoot down a dji style drone if you don't have a shotgun with birdshot
- Ancapistani 3y agoBirdshot doesn’t travel far enough to reliably harm a drone flying at even the US-legal maximum of 400’ AGL. The travel distance for #9.5 birdshot is only 700’ - and that’s ground distance covered when fired at optimal angle, not vertical reach.
- lm28469 3y agoThe suicide drones pop a 0' from you, 700' is plenty, even a third would save you. I've seen videos of Russians throwing rocks or magazines at drones, they'd have better odds with shotguns and birdshots
- great_psy 3y agoDoes it really have a lot of military applications ? I presume weight is heavily optimized to get 300kmph. So it won’t go that fast if it carries explosives. Could be used for high value target killing. Like literally a bullet you can control, might be able to make that work. But for reconnaissance can’t the drone just go high up ? And then can’t really be shot down with a rifle ? You just need better optics.
- beached_whale 3y agoMaybe just paint the target with a laser and follow it until the others get it.
- htrp 3y ago>Like literally a bullet you can control, might be able to make that work. Please stop speedrunning scifi dystopias
- toss1 3y agoThat cat has been out of the bag for at least seven years. The Slaughterbots video was for arms-control advocacy[0,1], but definitely speedrunning near-real dystopias way more than anything here... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughterbots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughterbots [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-2tpwW0kmU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-2tpwW0kmU
- bookofjoe 3y ago>The Future of Smart Bullets https://youtu.be/KAqSGhOuGm4?si=ZlklaMzN06SeG238 https://youtu.be/KAqSGhOuGm4?si=ZlklaMzN06SeG238
- tdudhhu 3y agoAs a matter of fact, their phone is ringing constantly after the world watched this video. "The phone of Thomas de Koster from Middelburg has been ringing off the hook since the video came online yesterday afternoon." https://www.omroepzeeland.nl/nieuws/16315140/snelle-drone-van-thomas-uit-middelburg-verslaat-max-verstappen-in-f1-wagen https://www.omroepzeeland.nl/nieuws/16315140/snelle-drone-va... (Dutch) https://www.dutchdronegods.com/ https://www.dutchdronegods.com/
- elorant 3y agoOne F1 lap is like 4 miles at maximum. I doubt that would be enough for recon, since you'd have to calculate the distance it needs to cover to return to its handler.
- yuppiepuppie 3y agoWhy do you need it to return? Seems like you can stream out the data feed and then self destruct after use.
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoAnd if it self destructs by hitting an ammo depot or the expensive optics on a tank or a commanding officer in the head, even better. The RoI of such drones would be insane. The modern battlefield is getting even more scary. Soldiers are gonna have PTSD from the drone motor whine when they return home.
- elorant 3y agoThe drone is very loud. You can hear it from hundreds of meters away. The rotors are moving at 0.8 Mach in order to achieve this speed. It's not obvious from this specific video, but if you watch a similar one from an almost identical drone you can realize how impossible it would be to get it close to anything critical unnoticed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbYEzEWvjr8&t=98s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbYEzEWvjr8&t=98s
- klyrs 3y agoWhat's the point of recon if you're going to loudly announce where your drone went?
- Aerroon 3y agoWhat surprises me is that these kinds of drones aren't already standard equipment. Even in the mid 2000s I thought that these types of drones were the future of warfare. If you have enough of them you could use them to sweep out areas. Launch a bunch and have them map out the place. You can have them carry weapons and other such things, eg laser communications networks. Back then I figured that by the 2020-2030s ships would exist that would primarily carry (larger) drones. Those drones could then carry these smaller drones into their locations to do all the things they need to do.
- jonhohle 3y ago> what about a turret that shoots smaller turrets? - Torbjörn, Overwatch
- meheleventyone 3y agoThere's heavy use of EW on both sides. You need a fairly decent signal to pilot a drone like this as it has to support both sending video back to the operator and commands to the drone. As I understand things both sides are using these sorts of piloted drones extensively to attack any armored vehicles where possible and bunkers on the front line otherwise. For example this rather depressing article cites Russian manufacturing capacity as outstripping Ukraine: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/ukraine-losing-drone-war-eric-schmidt https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/ukraine-losing-drone-...
- Solvency 3y agoThe thing is, they probably do exist. Especially in the US possession. You just don't get to see or hear about them.
- lm28469 3y agoI think they've been researching these for a while now: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KBMU6l6GsdM&pp=ygUfRmlyc3QgYXJteSBkcm9uZSBsZXZpdGF0aW5nIHVzYQ%3D%3D https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KBMU6l6GsdM&pp=ygUfRmlyc3QgYXJ...
- paganel 3y agoNot that many drones get shot down, and when it happens it’s so noteworthy that the one doing the shooting down can’t actually believe his luck. And they usually use shotguns for that, using rifles is really just 100% pure luck. As per the speed, on their way down current (very cheap) drones are already way too fast for anyone to try and shoot them, the taking down (when it rarely happens) usually takes place when the drone is in the middle of a hovering pattern. Were the drones to always go at full speed (100 kph, 300 kph, it doesn’t really matter) then the operators controlling them would have no way to tell which is which on the ground.
- fuzzy2 3y agoThis form factor is already well-established, though 300 km/h is still very fast.
- freitzkriesler2 3y agoKinetic impact aside, I've seen videos out of Ukraine of this but the drones also have explosives strapped to them. Its safe to say this has already happened.
- yreg 3y ago>but since they're slow, they often get shot down by rifle/small arms fire form soldiers Do they? I have an old and basic Mavic Air, but I can't imagine the skill it would require to shoot it down with a rifle if it's moving high up in the air. It's difficult enough to even spot it. I'm sure they do get shot down sometimes, but 'often' enough for it to be a problem?
- tyingq 3y agoI'm not sure what happens in real world drone shoot down attempts, but I read the specs, and the Mavic supposedely tops out around 40mph. Certainly hunters have had enough luck shooting ducks and other waterfowl with similar speed. Albeit with shotguns.
- yreg 3y agoTo be fair, ducks don't maneuver the way a drone can.
- Ancapistani 3y agoYour average duck is far more maneuverable than a Mavic.
- yreg 3y agoSince when do ducks fly to the side? Or vertically?
- Ancapistani 3y ago> I'm sure they do get shot down sometimes, but 'often' enough for it to be a problem? For one person with a bolt-action rifle, no. For a battalion of conscripts with automatic rifles? I’m sure it happens quite a bit.
- saidinesh5 3y agoUkraine AND Russia have both used off the shelf/even custom built racing drones for various "kamikaze" styled attacks. This is also one of the stated reasons from China about their recent export restrictions on drone parts. Just search for "Ukraine/Russia FPV drones". Building this stuff is trivial too. Anyone who can solder a few components and follow a 30 minute youtube tutorial can have one of these.
- andix 3y agoI guess for military use you need both high efficiency to travel longer distances and some payload capacity to carry explosives. Off the shelf camera drones usually can't fly further than 10-15km on one charge. This is probably not enough for a lot of reconnaissance tasks. Another problem of multicopters is the loud noise they produce, not really suitable for warfare. I think there is a reason that most military drones are fixed-wing aircrafts, similar to regular model airplanes
- erikig 3y agoIn addition to just looking really cool, the final part of the video with the drone following Max’s car in the rain does a good job of visualizing the aerodynamics of the latest F1 cars and how they affect the racers around them.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- jakupovic 3y agoF1 must be really good at marketing. Every time I look at Google news there is invariably a story about F1 something, also British royalty. This is one of those times.
- Solvency 3y agoF1 is a sport for billionaires, and even the racers are all incredibly wealthy/fortunate nepo babies. Imagine if every kid in the US had the privilege/fortune to race carts/cars since they were little kids. Imagine the US football equivalent, where hundreds of thousands of kids are gradually filtered out all the way up to college and then the NFL, ensuring the absolute best of the best are ultimately selected. F1 is by comparison the least accessible sporting path in the world. The drivers who make it are great but they represent a rounding error equivalent of a potential candidate pool.
- jakupovic 3y agoInteresting. Didn't know this aspect of the sport, will read more. Thanks
- raphaelj 3y agoIs it really? A lot of these drivers debuted with karting, which while not being exactly cheap, is accessible to the most of the middle class.
- dns_snek 3y agoAccording to [1]: > The split is approximately: $2m on karting, $500,000 per season in F4, another $1m on F3 and $3m plus on F2 – without contingencies. Not all of that may come from parents’ pockets, but seven million bucks is still a massive pile, particularly given there are no guarantees of an F1 seat at the end of it. [1] https://www.racefans.net/2021/07/28/is-formula-2s-3-million-admission-price-good-value-for-aspiring-f1-drivers/ https://www.racefans.net/2021/07/28/is-formula-2s-3-million-...
- Solvency 3y ago
- bri3d 3y agoThere's a fairly significant amount of controversy in the DIY FPV world about this video, mostly because https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7c1iZQpR8_mct1tCKcjWcw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7c1iZQpR8_mct1tCKcjWcw (quadmovr) and others have been building drones of the same aerodynamic style for several years which can achieve similar speeds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbYEzEWvjr8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbYEzEWvjr8 . This is basically just marketing fluff from Dutch Drone Gods and Red Bull. It's a really cool video, but it's nothing new in terms of drone tech. The piloting is pretty damn impressive, though!
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoAnother proof that life isn't fair. At the end of the day being the first or the best at something isn't enough to make you famous for that something. Sometimes, someone else beats you to mainstream fame because they either had better media connections or they just lucked out by coming out just at the right time while you were maybe a bit too early. See various indie Steam games. 90% of them go unnoticed by the general public despite being decent and fun, but sometimes some famous streamer picks one up and then that one game explodes in popularity despite many other being better than it. It's just how life works. It's full of randomness and brownian movement.
- bookofjoe 3y agoYes. For every famous artist there are 999 others just as good who go unnoticed.
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoThe Mona Lisa painting only became really famous after someone stole it in 1911. Before that, nobody bothered to guard it properly because it wasn't popular and they thought nobody would be interested in stealing it lol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa#Refuge,_theft,_and_vandalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa#Refuge,_theft,_and_v...
- voisin 3y ago
- orbital-decay 3y agoThat's just an ad. This is far from fastest; glider drones can reach transonic speeds (~550mph) with dynamic soaring without even having a motor. [1] They've been around for a while. F1 comparison on a straight road is also meh, as F1 is designed for cornering speed. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nyYaL0dGAA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nyYaL0dGAA , but there's plenty of those on YouTube
- thatswrong0 3y agoI mean the title says fastest camera drone, which that is decidedly not. Not to say that it's a necessarily accurate title, as other commenters have pointed out.
- jsnell 3y agoBut this isn't a comparison on a straight line, it's a comparison around a full lap with the drone not cutting corners (though also not staying within the track limits).
- mrandish 3y agoImpressive engineering and even more impressive flying, especially when close enough to be in the turbulent air coming off the car. As someone into RC flight I'd love to see a break down of the components used for that build (batteries, ESCs, motors) as well as the specs (weight, flight time, max acceleration) and performance metrics (peak amps, temps, etc). As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, this kind of performance isn't that unusual in the ultra high-performance drone world. They are definitely building on the work of others but it's nice to see this kind of engineering get more mainstream exposure.
- bri3d 3y agoI think it's pretty standard stuff. The motors are T-Motor F80 Pro 1900kv. The battery is an 8S LiPo (you can see the voltage in one of the videos). ESCs are highly undifferentiated since they're mostly similar designs running the same firmwares, any suitable high amperage ESC would work for this application. It's the props that are most interesting to me, as this is what drives a lot of the speed capability - they're some kind of extremely high pitch bi-blades, I think 5", but I haven't figured out which yet. I'd be curious to see their peak current draw too, and how much trouble they have with heat running F80 Pros on 8S.
- mrandish 3y agoAgreed. It's not like the days when racers had to hand-wind motors for higher performance. The hobby's now so popular manufacturers are producing high-end components in volume.
- andix 3y agoThis "camera drone" is definitively faster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-9_Reaper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-9_Reaper :D
- ethbr1 3y agoDirect deep link to just the lap footage w/ spliced car audio (at the end of the original clip). https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9pEqyr_uT-k&t=9m33s https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9pEqyr_uT-k&t=9m33s
- seanalltogether 3y agoThat mist trail coming off the back is just so cool, I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before.
- latchkey 3y agoHow I Built the FASTEST Drone on Earth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szxRORFl_lc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szxRORFl_lc
- 2-718-281-828 3y agomy impression was that the final race was slower due to the wet track. they also didn't show speed as in the first race. still very impressive.