4 ms·

Paris night drone mystery deepens

10 points by dismal2 12y ago

xutopia 12y ago
I don't think people realize that France has a huge number of drone aficionados. They race drones and have plenty of competitions for amateurs. To me those drones are nothing more than a few amateurs taking pictures of the beautiful city of lights. No mystery there... simply a few non-threatening people having some fun with tech.
- matt_morgan 12y ago
  Right. All these stories fail to mention that you don't really need any special reason other than the perfectly obvious (Paris at night!!!) to want to fly a drone there. Plus once it makes the news, you better get your pics quickly, before it's too late.
mcamara 12y ago
Since it should be relatively straightforward to weaponize these drones, is this all leading to a ban on civilian drones in the foreseeable future?
- john_b 12y ago
  Paris already bans drones at night and requires a permit to operate during the day. The fourth sentence in the article states this... It's far easier to "weaponize" your car and park it by a target. You'll do far more damage and be much less conspicuous than a drone operator who needs to maintain a line of sight to the drone. Yet cars are not banned. Anything lightweight you would weaponize a drone with is already a monitored substance. The privacy and nuisance concerns associated with drones are far more significant than the threat of weaponized drones, which is really quite ludicrous and impractical.
- dspillett 12y ago
  >"Flying drones over Paris at night is illegal and daytime flights require authorisation from the city." So there is already an outright ban at night, and significant limits in the day.
- chrismarlow9 12y ago
  I think so. This article somewhat shows that there's no real control over the drones and it still takes manual labor to track and identify the owners. Right now there are only a few drones, and it's taking days to get them out. If these were weaponized it would be far too late. That's only with a few of them. All it would take is a small military/ops budget to launch like 50 drones and then there's no chance. This + the whitehouse drone incident = impending crackdown on drones...
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
sctb 12y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9106905 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9106905
- dismal2 12y ago
  yeah just noticed this, maybe url was a bit different and allowed dup. can a mod delete this?
msane 12y ago
I predict that some cities will eventually desire persistent aerial surveillance systems like http://www.baesystems.com/product/BAES_162772/ARGUS-IS http://www.baesystems.com/product/BAES_162772/ARGUS-IS for many reasons, this being one. The best way to tell who is operating a drone may be to play wide-area surveillance video backward and trace the drone back to where it was launched. Wide-area surveillance is a slightly scary technology. But it may be more good than bad if used appropriately.

10 points by dismal2 12y ago

I don't think people realize that France has a huge number of drone aficionados. They race drones and have plenty of competitions for amateurs. To me those drones are nothing more than a few amateurs taking pictures of the beautiful city of lights. No mystery there... simply a few non-threatening people having some fun with tech.

matt_morgan 12y ago
Right. All these stories fail to mention that you don't really need any special reason other than the perfectly obvious (Paris at night!!!) to want to fly a drone there. Plus once it makes the news, you better get your pics quickly, before it's too late.

mcamara 12y ago

Since it should be relatively straightforward to weaponize these drones, is this all leading to a ban on civilian drones in the foreseeable future?

john_b 12y ago
Paris already bans drones at night and requires a permit to operate during the day. The fourth sentence in the article states this... It's far easier to "weaponize" your car and park it by a target. You'll do far more damage and be much less conspicuous than a drone operator who needs to maintain a line of sight to the drone. Yet cars are not banned. Anything lightweight you would weaponize a drone with is already a monitored substance. The privacy and nuisance concerns associated with drones are far more significant than the threat of weaponized drones, which is really quite ludicrous and impractical.
dspillett 12y ago
>"Flying drones over Paris at night is illegal and daytime flights require authorisation from the city." So there is already an outright ban at night, and significant limits in the day.
chrismarlow9 12y ago
I think so. This article somewhat shows that there's no real control over the drones and it still takes manual labor to track and identify the owners. Right now there are only a few drones, and it's taking days to get them out. If these were weaponized it would be far too late. That's only with a few of them. All it would take is a small military/ops budget to launch like 50 drones and then there's no chance. This + the whitehouse drone incident = impending crackdown on drones...
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

sctb 12y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9106905 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9106905

dismal2 12y ago
yeah just noticed this, maybe url was a bit different and allowed dup. can a mod delete this?

msane 12y ago

I predict that some cities will eventually desire persistent aerial surveillance systems like http://www.baesystems.com/product/BAES_162772/ARGUS-IS http://www.baesystems.com/product/BAES_162772/ARGUS-IS for many reasons, this being one. The best way to tell who is operating a drone may be to play wide-area surveillance video backward and trace the drone back to where it was launched. Wide-area surveillance is a slightly scary technology. But it may be more good than bad if used appropriately.