3 ms·

Prediction: Flock acquires Axon.

echelon 3mo ago
They're a public company with a $50B market cap. That's not going to happen. The direction would be the other way around. Axon is showing that they want the market, that they can build the tech themselves, and that they can leverage their extensive existing relationships with law enforcement and municipal governments as sales channels.
- throwawayZ151 3mo ago
  Correct directional analysis - but Axon already has competing products and is demonstrating here that they don’t need to acquire Flock to take market share. I am very doubtful of an acquisition.
- mrexroad 3mo ago
  My city has a contract with Flock, but the rest of their tech “stack” is Axon based. I’ll be surprised if they don’t change ALPR to Axon at first chance.
  - SoftTalker 3mo ago
    In fact they are probably already using Axon ALPR in their police vehicles. That technology has existed for a while, even before Flock's fixed cameras became widespread. I find it slightly less objectionable, as the chances that I drive by Flock's cameras every day are nearly 100% but the chances that I'm within visual range of a police car are much lower and more random.
cdrnsf 3mo ago
Soon: Flock branded tasers.
- andrei_says_ 3mo ago
  Even better: see Wim Wenders’ The End of Violence.
- tamimio 3mo ago
  PTZ tasers!
eth0up 3mo ago
Prediction: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49053193 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49053193 Axon just replaces Flock in some places. But I forgot to say that it probably doesn't matter much, and that whatever anyone resents about the whole thing, will just get worse.
- Cider9986 3mo ago
  These are literally city councils in many places. They're not our overlords.
  - eth0up 3mo ago
    That's fine too. I didn't intend to create a point of dispute. That's just my writing style which lends itself to selective interpretation. Understood. The masses, or 'other' population, whoever it is that protests this variety of surveillance; the angry minority/ineffectual-majority, the misguided few/many that don't embrace the panopticon, etc. Regardless, it's not going away. From here onward, whatever form of surveillance or control it is, it's not going away. Eternal whackamole, eternal malcontent, we can hate it and spray-paint it all we want, but the only means to stop it is the one most people are either not capable of, or do not believe they are capable of, and it does not involve vandalism, feeble expressions of frothing contempt or anything but serious organized and unfortunately, legal methodology. Everything else is mostly symbolic, in a time when public opinion is less valuable than ever, and symbols offer little more than forensic evidence and fuel for long-term counter strategy. Flock, Axon, ARGUS-IS, Xfinity CSI multi-AP WiFi sensing fusion, evil smartphones -- it's all here to stay, and evolve, and get pushed in our lives. Might is Right. However terribly wrong it might be. And might is especially right when society divests from the primary tool capable of making it wrong. And I think, largely, that is what we've done. A city council is a minority. Whether it represents the majority, is, I think, not always consistent.
advisedwang 3mo ago
Axon is a public company with market cap of $50B. It is an incumbent with a huge business in bodycams and tasers with a huge number of US police departments. Flock has a $7.5B valuation at it's last funding round, and is the new comer. More likely for Axon to acquire flock than the other way around.
- yieldcrv 3mo ago
  half cash, half stock

They're a public company with a $50B market cap. That's not going to happen. The direction would be the other way around. Axon is showing that they want the market, that they can build the tech themselves, and that they can leverage their extensive existing relationships with law enforcement and municipal governments as sales channels.

throwawayZ151 3mo ago
Correct directional analysis - but Axon already has competing products and is demonstrating here that they don’t need to acquire Flock to take market share. I am very doubtful of an acquisition.
mrexroad 3mo ago
My city has a contract with Flock, but the rest of their tech “stack” is Axon based. I’ll be surprised if they don’t change ALPR to Axon at first chance.
- SoftTalker 3mo ago
  In fact they are probably already using Axon ALPR in their police vehicles. That technology has existed for a while, even before Flock's fixed cameras became widespread. I find it slightly less objectionable, as the chances that I drive by Flock's cameras every day are nearly 100% but the chances that I'm within visual range of a police car are much lower and more random.

cdrnsf 3mo ago

Soon: Flock branded tasers.

andrei_says_ 3mo ago
Even better: see Wim Wenders’ The End of Violence.
tamimio 3mo ago
PTZ tasers!

eth0up 3mo ago

Prediction: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49053193 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49053193 Axon just replaces Flock in some places. But I forgot to say that it probably doesn't matter much, and that whatever anyone resents about the whole thing, will just get worse.

Cider9986 3mo ago
These are literally city councils in many places. They're not our overlords.
- eth0up 3mo ago
  That's fine too. I didn't intend to create a point of dispute. That's just my writing style which lends itself to selective interpretation. Understood. The masses, or 'other' population, whoever it is that protests this variety of surveillance; the angry minority/ineffectual-majority, the misguided few/many that don't embrace the panopticon, etc. Regardless, it's not going away. From here onward, whatever form of surveillance or control it is, it's not going away. Eternal whackamole, eternal malcontent, we can hate it and spray-paint it all we want, but the only means to stop it is the one most people are either not capable of, or do not believe they are capable of, and it does not involve vandalism, feeble expressions of frothing contempt or anything but serious organized and unfortunately, legal methodology. Everything else is mostly symbolic, in a time when public opinion is less valuable than ever, and symbols offer little more than forensic evidence and fuel for long-term counter strategy. Flock, Axon, ARGUS-IS, Xfinity CSI multi-AP WiFi sensing fusion, evil smartphones -- it's all here to stay, and evolve, and get pushed in our lives. Might is Right. However terribly wrong it might be. And might is especially right when society divests from the primary tool capable of making it wrong. And I think, largely, that is what we've done. A city council is a minority. Whether it represents the majority, is, I think, not always consistent.

advisedwang 3mo ago

Axon is a public company with market cap of $50B. It is an incumbent with a huge business in bodycams and tasers with a huge number of US police departments. Flock has a $7.5B valuation at it's last funding round, and is the new comer. More likely for Axon to acquire flock than the other way around.

yieldcrv 3mo ago
half cash, half stock