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I really hope they don't use the word 'drone' when these go to market. This is my new least favorite overloaded word since 'hack'. There are two kinds of auto

by habosa 12y ago

I really hope they don't use the word 'drone' when these go to market. This is my new least favorite overloaded word since 'hack'. There are two kinds of autonomous flying machines that we call drones: small quadcopters that hobbyists fly around, and winged planes that our govt. uses to monitor and attack their enemies. Most people think drone == drone. So there are two camps. The first thinks all drones are killing machines. This is wrong and causes irrational fear about our cool toys. The other camp thinks all drones are the friendly Amazon delivery helicopters. This reduces their concerns about a troublesome government program. Sorry for the mini-rant. I just wish we'd separate the terms so we can deal with toys and war machines separately.

dragonwriter 12y ago
> There are two kinds of autonomous flying machines that we call drones: small quadcopters that hobbyists fly around, and winged planes that our govt. uses to monitor and attack their enemies. In most cases (in both classes), aren't these remotely piloted rather than autonomous? (And there are several others -- the term is generally used for remotely piloted vehicles, including, e.g, target drones.) > I just wish we'd separate the terms so we can deal with toys and war machines separately. "Military drones", "Armed drones", "Predators", are all terms of various specificity that are in use to specifically refer to the "war machine" kind. "Delivery drones", "civilian drones", and other terms of varying specificity are in use to specifically refer to the other kind. I don't really see any problem when "drone" itself is used in a context where the kind of drone doesn't need further specification in the term, since the longer description already tells you which class it falls in.
ahoge 12y ago
They are drones though. A drone is just an unmanned air vehicle (UAV). The armed ones are in a subcategory called "unmanned combat aerial vehicle" (UCAV) or just "combat drone".
sjtrny 12y ago
I dislike the use of the word drone too. To me it means something that is autonomous. Most hobby quadcopters are not autonomous, although they could be with a sophisticated flight controller. So they can technically be autonomous but usually they are not. So "drone" is a generalisation. It's kind of like saying "I drove my vehicle" rather than "I drove my car".
Htsthbjig 12y ago
I suppose they will use real drones,the ones that are semiautonomous(even military have not 100% autonomous machines, as they have problems recognizing another objects in the air so they need pilots on land). I bet they are working on a "follow me while doing crazy things" drone, like this: http://online.wsj.com/articles/gopro-developing-line-of-consumer-drones-1417020883 http://online.wsj.com/articles/gopro-developing-line-of-cons... About personal drones nos being as powerful as military, well, like computers it is about time. I have several drones with ARM processors on them that could do amazing things, bad things too. Like a knife, you could use it for killing.

by habosa 12y ago

dragonwriter 12y ago

> There are two kinds of autonomous flying machines that we call drones: small quadcopters that hobbyists fly around, and winged planes that our govt. uses to monitor and attack their enemies. In most cases (in both classes), aren't these remotely piloted rather than autonomous? (And there are several others -- the term is generally used for remotely piloted vehicles, including, e.g, target drones.) > I just wish we'd separate the terms so we can deal with toys and war machines separately. "Military drones", "Armed drones", "Predators", are all terms of various specificity that are in use to specifically refer to the "war machine" kind. "Delivery drones", "civilian drones", and other terms of varying specificity are in use to specifically refer to the other kind. I don't really see any problem when "drone" itself is used in a context where the kind of drone doesn't need further specification in the term, since the longer description already tells you which class it falls in.

ahoge 12y ago

They are drones though. A drone is just an unmanned air vehicle (UAV). The armed ones are in a subcategory called "unmanned combat aerial vehicle" (UCAV) or just "combat drone".

sjtrny 12y ago

I dislike the use of the word drone too. To me it means something that is autonomous. Most hobby quadcopters are not autonomous, although they could be with a sophisticated flight controller. So they can technically be autonomous but usually they are not. So "drone" is a generalisation. It's kind of like saying "I drove my vehicle" rather than "I drove my car".

Htsthbjig 12y ago

I suppose they will use real drones,the ones that are semiautonomous(even military have not 100% autonomous machines, as they have problems recognizing another objects in the air so they need pilots on land). I bet they are working on a "follow me while doing crazy things" drone, like this: http://online.wsj.com/articles/gopro-developing-line-of-consumer-drones-1417020883 http://online.wsj.com/articles/gopro-developing-line-of-cons... About personal drones nos being as powerful as military, well, like computers it is about time. I have several drones with ARM processors on them that could do amazing things, bad things too. Like a knife, you could use it for killing.