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That seems entirely unviable to me. Have you met… people? “Trust me, bro!” is something I wish my power company would do, but they installed a meter instead.

by ceejayoz 10mo ago

yorwba 10mo ago
What's unviable about having the power company vet the thing that reports "I drew X joules from line Y" like they would vet any other meter?
- themafia 10mo ago
  Does the device report directly to the power company, or is that data aggregated and reported in some other format? If it's the latter then hand editing is all it takes to create fraud.
  - closewith 10mo ago
    Hand editing is all it takes to create fraud in all areas of business.
lesam 10mo ago
Depends. When millions are on the line between companies, people are surprisingly willing to take a hand-created excel file as 'proof'. For example: https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/tricolors-excel-guy-failed-to-fix-all-numbers-in-alleged-fraud https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/tricolors-excel-g...
notahacker 10mo ago
Feels like this is likely to be targeting government and major corporate clients, in which case they're probably in a strong place to negotiate agreements based on charge reported by the drone's on board software. Not to mention the utility companies themselves, who are mentioned as the initial market.
bri3d 10mo ago
Unmetered electric service based on "trust me bro" is actually the default (at least in the US) for a huge variety of devices, like streetlights, cell towers mounted to electric poles, public irrigation systems, etc etc. Almost every US utility has a "UM" process to self-assess an unmetered load's consumption and be billed. So, yes, it's not only viable but widespread.
- rightbyte 10mo ago
  > Unmetered electric service based on "trust me bro" is actually the default (at least in the US) for a huge variety of devices I wouldn't talk too loud about this or you will ruin it for all of us. If I discover the street lights on my street mine botcoins I will blame you.
Analemma_ 10mo ago
B2B transactions like this are handled fine with contracts and lawyers all the time, I doubt it would be an issue. In the worst case, the utility could own the recharging module on the drone, just like they own your power meter.
lkbm 10mo ago
I mean, if I have to pay them by how much power I draw, I'm pretty glad they have a way to measure that, because I don't. What's there alternative in this case? If I can land a drone on the power line and suck up some power, they can either charge me when I tell them I did it, or they can not charge me.

That seems entirely unviable to me. Have you met… people? “Trust me, bro!” is something I wish my power company would do, but they installed a meter instead.

yorwba 10mo ago

What's unviable about having the power company vet the thing that reports "I drew X joules from line Y" like they would vet any other meter?

themafia 10mo ago
Does the device report directly to the power company, or is that data aggregated and reported in some other format? If it's the latter then hand editing is all it takes to create fraud.
- closewith 10mo ago
  Hand editing is all it takes to create fraud in all areas of business.

lesam 10mo ago

Depends. When millions are on the line between companies, people are surprisingly willing to take a hand-created excel file as 'proof'. For example: https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/tricolors-excel-guy-failed-to-fix-all-numbers-in-alleged-fraud https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/tricolors-excel-g...

notahacker 10mo ago

Feels like this is likely to be targeting government and major corporate clients, in which case they're probably in a strong place to negotiate agreements based on charge reported by the drone's on board software. Not to mention the utility companies themselves, who are mentioned as the initial market.

bri3d 10mo ago

Unmetered electric service based on "trust me bro" is actually the default (at least in the US) for a huge variety of devices, like streetlights, cell towers mounted to electric poles, public irrigation systems, etc etc. Almost every US utility has a "UM" process to self-assess an unmetered load's consumption and be billed. So, yes, it's not only viable but widespread.

rightbyte 10mo ago
> Unmetered electric service based on "trust me bro" is actually the default (at least in the US) for a huge variety of devices I wouldn't talk too loud about this or you will ruin it for all of us. If I discover the street lights on my street mine botcoins I will blame you.

Analemma_ 10mo ago

B2B transactions like this are handled fine with contracts and lawyers all the time, I doubt it would be an issue. In the worst case, the utility could own the recharging module on the drone, just like they own your power meter.

lkbm 10mo ago

I mean, if I have to pay them by how much power I draw, I'm pretty glad they have a way to measure that, because I don't. What's there alternative in this case? If I can land a drone on the power line and suck up some power, they can either charge me when I tell them I did it, or they can not charge me.