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Drone believed to have hit British Airways flight 'may have been a plastic bag'

telegraph.co.uk

71–80 of 176 posts

Re: Drone believed to have hit British Airways flight 'may have been a plastic bag'

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a slippery slope argument. Which governments of civilized, democratic countries have commandeered ISP's filters for questionable uses? If you're talking about the UK porn filter, it is the other way around: government has instituted a law saying they have to do it. Even if it were a law, I don't see the issue that you are arguing. You're essentially saying "I don't want a law that says drones are banned b…

> Sounds like a slippery slope argument. [...] it is the other way around: government has instituted a law saying they have to do it. Yeah, that's the point. When the technology has been demonstrated to work (even if badly) in some areas it's suddenly mandated in other areas. Now we have a technology that was so-so at blocking unwanted porn being used for everything from catching pedophiles to checking for intel leak…

Yeah, that's the point. When the technology has been demonstrated to work (even if badly) in some areas it's suddenly mandated in other areas.

I'm not sure that seeing an actual implementation is required for politician to have harebrained ideas. Besides, as others have pointed out, geofencing has already been implemented by DJI, so we're past that phase anyway.

Re: Drone believed to have hit British Airways flight 'may have been a plastic bag'

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I (obviously) meant voluntary on the part of the manufacturers. That is how Phantom do it, and it seems to work well.

Sure, and creation of a law would be voluntary on the part of the government. The end result for the owner is the same - an involuntary restriction of their drone's software. We don't need any more encouragement of device lockdown, treacherous computing, and the general erosion of ownership.

>We don't need any more encouragement of device lockdown, treacherous computing, and the general erosion of ownership.

Actually, we do, at least in this case. The majority of users don't know/care about flying close to airports. (See my other comments in the thread).

From what I can tell, however, all the larger drones tend to have geofencing already, so perhaps the current de facto situation is adequate.

Re: Drone believed to have hit British Airways flight 'may have been a plastic bag'

#73
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a danger to this though; if drone pilots are universally expected to be warned when they fly in dangerous areas, then pilots will start flying "to the edge" and expect the technology to always keep them in line. I would be surprised if restricted areas were stable enough that drones could store a database of no-go areas and keep it up to date easily. It would be more straightforward to set clear policy and pr…

With cars we have technologies called roads and lines and signs that tell us where we can and cannot go. But sometimes, those fail us. Particularly in areas with lots of dirt roads (no lines). And especially when there are many dirt roads (potentially no signs, too many locations to put them up). That does not excuse people from driving in restricted areas. It may be cause for mitigation. But, at least around here, d…

This only helps if drones are not actually dangerous. If they are, and an Airbus is destroyed, then that's the problem.

Also, finding a drone operator is not necessarily easy.

Re: Drone believed to have hit British Airways flight 'may have been a plastic bag'

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classic HN. Jumping from someone's annoyance to "create a startup" that "definitely has value" without knowing anything about the space.

> Classic HN. Jumping from someone's annoyance to "create a startup" that "definitely has value" without knowing anything about the space. Haha joke's on you buddy, I grew up around aviation and know that log books and maps are what pilots must always have at all times in all situations otherwise they'll get popped by the FAA. Only recently have digital devices been allowed anywhere NEAR professional cockpits, having…

To be fair to your parent, the feature is already deployed in popular drones (both dji and 3dr).

It's hard to see a market for something already built in for free (airspace restrictions) and anyone familiar with current drones would know this.

Re: Drone believed to have hit British Airways flight 'may have been a plastic bag'

#75
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's actually good precedent to bring up - has e.g. Google Maps or more infamously, Apple Maps, ever been held liable for bad directions? I believe it's still seen as the end user's responsibility to obey the laws, especially when the safeguards fail.

Someone got killed recently because Waze took them to a same-named street but in a bad neighborhood in Brazil

Waze seems like insanely dangerous software in the first place. The whole idea of a "social" driving application that constantly pops up little alerts that the driver is supposed to respond to seems to be inviting distracted, dangerous driving.

Re: Drone believed to have hit British Airways flight 'may have been a plastic bag'

#76
If airports/pilots are really that paranoid perhaps they should install sensor system (low range radar?) to capture particular drones (and birds).

For drones, they have systems now that they can deploy to take them down immediately. http://www.skysafe.io/

And please, leave the rest of us who live/visit nowhere near airports alone.

Re: Drone believed to have hit British Airways flight 'may have been a plastic bag'

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone got killed recently because Waze took them to a same-named street but in a bad neighborhood in Brazil

Waze seems like insanely dangerous software in the first place. The whole idea of a "social" driving application that constantly pops up little alerts that the driver is supposed to respond to seems to be inviting distracted, dangerous driving.

"Supposed to respond to?" Yes, by driving. The alerts take the form of "Traffic ahead". "Police ahead", etc. There is no interaction required, or even expected unless you really want to poke the thumbs up "yes, this alert is still valid" button.

(And if you can't do that safely, given the size and consistent location of the button, you probably shouldn't have a license anyways)

Re: Drone believed to have hit British Airways flight 'may have been a plastic bag'

#79
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about its weight?

30g. http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/wholesale-price-1575-4...

I haven't had good luck with style of GPS module on my models, even a They're also prohibitively heavy on smaller models. A 10% increase in mass (for a 300g quadrotor) can shave an entire minute off of your run time.
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