5 ms·

The Mexican immigrant who set up a global drone firm

44 points by hocaoglv 12y ago

nakedrobot2 12y ago
A couple thoughts here: 1) Great to see Mr. Munoz getting some press for himself since it's been Chris Anderson getting all the attention until now with his involvement in 3d Robotics. A bit sad that it's in the context of Munoz being "a mexican immigrant" rather that merely being "an awesome human" but I guess that's the angle here 2) There is a big rift between the UAV community and the general public regarding terminology. No one - not a single person as far as I can tell - in the community calls them "drones" because it is an ugly word and it's associated with machines that fly to pakistan and murder people. Everyone - every single person - outside the UAV community does call them drones. I see no solution to this except for the fact that if you're a part of that community and you meet someone else who is, and you call it a UAV or multirotor, they know you're "in" which is sort of cool I guess ;-)
- albemuth 12y ago
  "If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew"
- G650 12y ago
  Really good points. 1) I am a Mexican American so seeing a successful Mexican in tech is really uplifting because there are very few that I can relate with. Definitely an angle that the journalist used so I agree with you. The headline unfortunately caught my attention but hey that's life. 2)Fantastic point on the terminology. This is now filed in my brain for later use. Thanks!
- desdiv 12y ago
  No one - not a single person as far as I can tell - in the community calls them "drones"... It's not entirely unanimous though. A popular UAV community site is called http://diydrones.com/ http://diydrones.com/ This is analogous to the euphemism treadmill. Pretty soon "UAV" will become too dangerous sounding and the community will switch to another label.
  - nakedrobot2 12y ago
    Yes you're right, lots of beginners are coming over from "the public" and still call them drones.... And there are a lot more of them than experienced RC folks.... so I'm guessing that maybe the word "drone" will grudgingly be accepted. Yes, lots of blogs and sites with "drone" in the domain name... part of our google-seo world I think.
- sopooneo 12y ago
  I have found that to the general public, drone now means either of two distinct things: 1. Any type of multirotor, regardless of how autonomous it is or whether it has a camera transmitting video 2. An autonomous fixed wing military aircraft used to take grainy green videos and drop bombs Although, actually, the second option would more likely not be the default, and called a "military drone" to clarify.
wahsd 12y ago
All feel good fuzzies about American dream this and that aside.... let me get this straight, he's an illegal alien creating an illegal business with illegal documents in order to break laws by flying drones for commercial purposes?
- jorgeleo 12y ago
  <sarcasm>Do you know the smallest violin in the world?</sarcasm>
- wooyi 12y ago
  He's not an illegal alien. In the article, he said that he has a greencard (he's probably naturalized by now). And commercial drones are used by many industries legally - film being one of them.
- pacofvf 12y ago
  he was an illegal resident for 8 months in 2007 and not a single part of his business is illegal. I would like to see some proofs of your ridiculous claims.
  - raverbashing 12y ago
    I'm pretty sure no one stays illegally for only 8 months than gets a Greencard after that time.
    - pacofvf 12y ago
      you are probably right therefore he probably wasn't even "illegal", the article only says that he was just waiting to get his green card, he maybe held a visa.
- kefka 12y ago
  You do know that there's no logical reason why there are countries to begin with? All countries are, are "people" with fences and guns, willing to slaughter people they don't like.

44 points by hocaoglv 12y ago

A couple thoughts here: 1) Great to see Mr. Munoz getting some press for himself since it's been Chris Anderson getting all the attention until now with his involvement in 3d Robotics. A bit sad that it's in the context of Munoz being "a mexican immigrant" rather that merely being "an awesome human" but I guess that's the angle here 2) There is a big rift between the UAV community and the general public regarding terminology. No one - not a single person as far as I can tell - in the community calls them "drones" because it is an ugly word and it's associated with machines that fly to pakistan and murder people. Everyone - every single person - outside the UAV community does call them drones. I see no solution to this except for the fact that if you're a part of that community and you meet someone else who is, and you call it a UAV or multirotor, they know you're "in" which is sort of cool I guess ;-)

albemuth 12y ago
"If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew"
G650 12y ago
Really good points. 1) I am a Mexican American so seeing a successful Mexican in tech is really uplifting because there are very few that I can relate with. Definitely an angle that the journalist used so I agree with you. The headline unfortunately caught my attention but hey that's life. 2)Fantastic point on the terminology. This is now filed in my brain for later use. Thanks!
desdiv 12y ago
No one - not a single person as far as I can tell - in the community calls them "drones"... It's not entirely unanimous though. A popular UAV community site is called http://diydrones.com/ http://diydrones.com/ This is analogous to the euphemism treadmill. Pretty soon "UAV" will become too dangerous sounding and the community will switch to another label.
- nakedrobot2 12y ago
  Yes you're right, lots of beginners are coming over from "the public" and still call them drones.... And there are a lot more of them than experienced RC folks.... so I'm guessing that maybe the word "drone" will grudgingly be accepted. Yes, lots of blogs and sites with "drone" in the domain name... part of our google-seo world I think.
sopooneo 12y ago
I have found that to the general public, drone now means either of two distinct things: 1. Any type of multirotor, regardless of how autonomous it is or whether it has a camera transmitting video 2. An autonomous fixed wing military aircraft used to take grainy green videos and drop bombs Although, actually, the second option would more likely not be the default, and called a "military drone" to clarify.

wahsd 12y ago

All feel good fuzzies about American dream this and that aside.... let me get this straight, he's an illegal alien creating an illegal business with illegal documents in order to break laws by flying drones for commercial purposes?

jorgeleo 12y ago
<sarcasm>Do you know the smallest violin in the world?</sarcasm>
wooyi 12y ago
He's not an illegal alien. In the article, he said that he has a greencard (he's probably naturalized by now). And commercial drones are used by many industries legally - film being one of them.
pacofvf 12y ago
he was an illegal resident for 8 months in 2007 and not a single part of his business is illegal. I would like to see some proofs of your ridiculous claims.
- raverbashing 12y ago
  I'm pretty sure no one stays illegally for only 8 months than gets a Greencard after that time.
  - pacofvf 12y ago
    you are probably right therefore he probably wasn't even "illegal", the article only says that he was just waiting to get his green card, he maybe held a visa.
kefka 12y ago
You do know that there's no logical reason why there are countries to begin with? All countries are, are "people" with fences and guns, willing to slaughter people they don't like.