I hate upvoting stories like these, because the HN comments are always going to be pure crap, but oh well. Also, fuck video ads.
Why will the comments be pure crap?
Hacker puts a video cam on an RC truck and saves the lives of 6 soldiers
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Re: Hacker puts a video cam on an RC truck and saves the lives of 6 soldiers
#12This is really, really cool. I wonder how much it'd cost to take something like http://micromotorx.com/kids-x-treme-ride-on-cars.html and fit it with cameras and all that. It seems like the larger size and the weight might be able to trigger things that a little RC car wouldn't. Of course, it's significantly more obvious than a little RC car, so it might get attacked separately -- then again, that's valuable info too.
Re: Hacker puts a video cam on an RC truck and saves the lives of 6 soldiers
#13The funny thing is that if the DoD contracted out to build these, they would end up costing over $1 million each. There are a lot of unique opportunities for startups that are willing to use off the shelf technology and package it in unique ways. Provided, of course, you don't have any ethical qualms about selling technology that might be used for good or evil.
Isn't that true of any technology?
Not the PSP controllers they use to control various things. The DoD gets those cheaper than we do.
Re: Hacker puts a video cam on an RC truck and saves the lives of 6 soldiers
#14The funny thing is that if the DoD contracted out to build these, they would end up costing over $1 million each. There are a lot of unique opportunities for startups that are willing to use off the shelf technology and package it in unique ways. Provided, of course, you don't have any ethical qualms about selling technology that might be used for good or evil.
Well, one reason is feature creep. More and more spec and features will just get tacked on (doesn't matter if it's suppose to be disposable).
Re: Hacker puts a video cam on an RC truck and saves the lives of 6 soldiers
#15The funny thing is that if the DoD contracted out to build these, they would end up costing over $1 million each. There are a lot of unique opportunities for startups that are willing to use off the shelf technology and package it in unique ways. Provided, of course, you don't have any ethical qualms about selling technology that might be used for good or evil.
Agree with the first part. However, I think that as long as you were fairly firm that you were only interested in building technology that saved lives (no RC toys with guns on them), I would not feel guilty in the slightest. After all, this truck can't really be used to hurt anyone, just save lives.
Re: Hacker puts a video cam on an RC truck and saves the lives of 6 soldiers
#16Re: Hacker puts a video cam on an RC truck and saves the lives of 6 soldiers
#17[OT]
For once, thank you for editorializing the title. Perfect choice of words.
Re: Hacker puts a video cam on an RC truck and saves the lives of 6 soldiers
#18These guy should put this up on kickstarter to raise cash for sending the units as gifts until DoD gets off their ass and actually learns from it!
Of course it's not as tough as it probably should be for all of military due, but the fact that it was still alive from 2007 means it's good enough to start.
Re: Hacker puts a video cam on an RC truck and saves the lives of 6 soldiers
#19The funny thing is that if the DoD contracted out to build these, they would end up costing over $1 million each. There are a lot of unique opportunities for startups that are willing to use off the shelf technology and package it in unique ways. Provided, of course, you don't have any ethical qualms about selling technology that might be used for good or evil.
I think it's because this solution is pretty specific to the region. The toy truck works on sandy roads in the middle east. If the roads were muddy or large gravel the toy would get stuck. The DoD would probably have requirements for this to work in multiple terrains.
Having different solutions for different terrains would become a logistics problem. The DoD already has enough problems getting equipment like AA batteries to the correct locations in sufficent quantity.
Re: Hacker puts a video cam on an RC truck and saves the lives of 6 soldiers
#20The funny thing is that if the DoD contracted out to build these, they would end up costing over $1 million each. There are a lot of unique opportunities for startups that are willing to use off the shelf technology and package it in unique ways. Provided, of course, you don't have any ethical qualms about selling technology that might be used for good or evil.
Actually, if you don't sell it for at least 1M$, you won't get any contract, it doesn't look serious enough. Terrestrial drones were being done during WWII, Russians were remote-controlling full-sized tanks in the 40s, these techs should be obvious by now. I have been working for a defense project about instrumenting some armored vehicles with video cameras and monitors. The project was more than 10 years old when I…
Let me be the first to say thank god they don't.
We should all count our blessings that hackers tend to be peaceful people by nature. Imagine if we were trying to kill each other.