4 ms·

Which is the latency of Nevada-Afghanistan? I'd always thought that this drones were operated from a relative short distance.

hughlomas 13y ago
I don't think that they are latency sensitive operations. I can't think of roles they fulfill that even a 1 second latency would affect.
- alcuadrado 13y ago
  Missiles? What if in that 1-second latency a car full of innocent people appear and they get killed?
  - jfoutz 13y ago
    Well, If you're Bryant you feel bad. Reddit tears you apart. It's a pretty thought provoking article. I thought it was worth reading, at least.
  - olympus 13y ago
    It's not so much a latency issue but a field of view issue. Cars don't really go that fast and you'll see them coming way ahead of time as long as your camera is zoomed out far enough. There are procedures in place to reduce the amount of stuff like this happening, but they haven't always been in place and they don't work 100%. But it's not like it's an issue that nobody has ever thought of, it was happening even before the rise of the drones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grdelica_train_bombing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grdelica_train_bombing
  - eCa 13y ago
    There are two latencies: * For the fire order from the command central to the drone. * For the missile from drone to target. I'd guess the later is greater than the former. > and they get killed? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collateral_damage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collateral_damage
  - TsiCClawOfLight 13y ago
    Those missiles are laser-guided, and the Drone flies following way-points. The only time were the latency actually comes into effect is between the firing order and the actual launch - Hellfires are F&F.
  - noir_lord 13y ago
    Then that would be "collateral damage" which is such a lovely euphemism for "we blew a bunch of innocent civilians to chowder but hey we are the good guys".
TomGullen 13y ago
If he target is moving at a constant trajectory it's probably fairly easy to compensate for a couple of seconds lag, computer could probably do this without much issue.
dchichkov 13y ago
It is probably around 100 ms. (Distance from Carson City, Nevada to Kabul, Afghanistan) / The speed of light = 39.3783 milliseconds
olympus 13y ago
Ballpark is around two seconds from making a control input (such as "begin orbiting around this point") and getting the feedback (like seeing the plane turning on your screen). You have to simultaneously stream full motion video from every drone flying over Afghanistan halfway across the planet via satellite-- not really an easy task. The latency sensitive parts such as taking off and landing are obviously done from nearby the physical location

hughlomas 13y ago

I don't think that they are latency sensitive operations. I can't think of roles they fulfill that even a 1 second latency would affect.

alcuadrado 13y ago
Missiles? What if in that 1-second latency a car full of innocent people appear and they get killed?
- jfoutz 13y ago
  Well, If you're Bryant you feel bad. Reddit tears you apart. It's a pretty thought provoking article. I thought it was worth reading, at least.
- olympus 13y ago
  It's not so much a latency issue but a field of view issue. Cars don't really go that fast and you'll see them coming way ahead of time as long as your camera is zoomed out far enough. There are procedures in place to reduce the amount of stuff like this happening, but they haven't always been in place and they don't work 100%. But it's not like it's an issue that nobody has ever thought of, it was happening even before the rise of the drones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grdelica_train_bombing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grdelica_train_bombing
- eCa 13y ago
  There are two latencies: * For the fire order from the command central to the drone. * For the missile from drone to target. I'd guess the later is greater than the former. > and they get killed? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collateral_damage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collateral_damage
- TsiCClawOfLight 13y ago
  Those missiles are laser-guided, and the Drone flies following way-points. The only time were the latency actually comes into effect is between the firing order and the actual launch - Hellfires are F&F.
- noir_lord 13y ago
  Then that would be "collateral damage" which is such a lovely euphemism for "we blew a bunch of innocent civilians to chowder but hey we are the good guys".

TomGullen 13y ago

If he target is moving at a constant trajectory it's probably fairly easy to compensate for a couple of seconds lag, computer could probably do this without much issue.

dchichkov 13y ago

It is probably around 100 ms. (Distance from Carson City, Nevada to Kabul, Afghanistan) / The speed of light = 39.3783 milliseconds

olympus 13y ago

Ballpark is around two seconds from making a control input (such as "begin orbiting around this point") and getting the feedback (like seeing the plane turning on your screen). You have to simultaneously stream full motion video from every drone flying over Afghanistan halfway across the planet via satellite-- not really an easy task. The latency sensitive parts such as taking off and landing are obviously done from nearby the physical location