I Could Kill You with a Consumer Drone • Hacker News Board

Re: I Could Kill You with a Consumer Drone

#21

Post by briHass » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 2:39 AM UTC

dhx wrote: post #16

comrade1234 wrote: post #6

Good luck getting an explosive payload to where I live.

I change that slightly to "Good luck getting an explosive payload." The difficulty for an attacker is the explosive payload, not the delivery mechanism. If it were easy for an attacker to get an explosive payload there would be car bombs going off every day as an easier delivery mechanism than use of quadcopters. Thankfully it seems to be relatively easy to prevent people from making explosives, at least outside of w…

Enough for a drone strike on a single target? It could be fairly crude and still effective, if accurate.

Re: I Could Kill You with a Consumer Drone

#22

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 2:45 AM UTC

HeavyStorm wrote: post #17

Only read the title. Going by it: you could also kill me with a kitchen knife, your car, a bat (if you're fit), multiple types of poison, a homemade firebomb, etc.

[deleted]

Re: I Could Kill You with a Consumer Drone

#23

Post by mysterydip » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 3:04 AM UTC

datadrivenangel wrote: post #12

"Meanwhile, on the military side, the Pentagon is still buying Boeing Scan Eagles at hundreds of thousands of dollars a pop when they can buy a similar capability for only a few thousand dollars at a local hobby shop." 1.Your local hobby shop drone will not be able to fly for 20 hours like a fixed wing Scan Eagle. Bad comparison. 2. Modifying drones to be used for combat is cheap if you don't count the labor cost, an…

Not to mention logistics. It’s easy to support one of something. Supporting spares, upgrades, obsolescences, etc (plus documentation and training) for hundreds of drones across the globe is another story.

Re: I Could Kill You with a Consumer Drone

#24

Post by toast0 » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 3:05 AM UTC

dhx wrote: post #16

comrade1234 wrote: post #6

Good luck getting an explosive payload to where I live.

I change that slightly to "Good luck getting an explosive payload." The difficulty for an attacker is the explosive payload, not the delivery mechanism. If it were easy for an attacker to get an explosive payload there would be car bombs going off every day as an easier delivery mechanism than use of quadcopters. Thankfully it seems to be relatively easy to prevent people from making explosives, at least outside of w…

I dunno where you live, but I've got year round fireworks stands near me.

Is that the best explosive payload? Almost certainly not, but it would probably work.

Re: I Could Kill You with a Consumer Drone

#25

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 3:05 AM UTC

functionmouse wrote: post #2

Yeah but you won't so it's not a big problem We can't orchestrate our society around what someone "could" do You could kill me with a rock easier than you could kill me with a drone

[deleted]

Re: I Could Kill You with a Consumer Drone

#26

Post by Ancapistani » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 4:16 AM UTC

dhx wrote: post #16

comrade1234 wrote: post #6

Good luck getting an explosive payload to where I live.

I change that slightly to "Good luck getting an explosive payload." The difficulty for an attacker is the explosive payload, not the delivery mechanism. If it were easy for an attacker to get an explosive payload there would be car bombs going off every day as an easier delivery mechanism than use of quadcopters. Thankfully it seems to be relatively easy to prevent people from making explosives, at least outside of w…

I can assure you, it is trivial to make effective explosives from easily-obtained ingredients.

Re: I Could Kill You with a Consumer Drone

#27

Post by rolph » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 4:32 AM UTC

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has adopted the name small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) to describe aircraft systems without a flight crew on board weighing less than 55 pounds

thus you would be using an aircraft(sUAS) to attack people, or if your breaking porch lights security cameras, pushing gate control buttons, you are attacking a building or facility.

i would expect this to involve a severe enforcement effort, and a lot of litigation.

Re: I Could Kill You with a Consumer Drone

#28

Post by mcphage » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 5:03 AM UTC

This is from 2017. Which isn’t to say it’s not real, because I’m sure you could, but it hasn’t really manifested as a civilian problem.

Re: I Could Kill You with a Consumer Drone

#29

Post by mcphage » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 5:04 AM UTC

HeavyStorm wrote: post #17

Only read the title. Going by it: you could also kill me with a kitchen knife, your car, a bat (if you're fit), multiple types of poison, a homemade firebomb, etc.

> a bat (if you're fit)

Or if it has rabies.

Re: I Could Kill You with a Consumer Drone

#30

Post by dzhiurgis » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 5:28 AM UTC

datadrivenangel wrote: post #12

"Meanwhile, on the military side, the Pentagon is still buying Boeing Scan Eagles at hundreds of thousands of dollars a pop when they can buy a similar capability for only a few thousand dollars at a local hobby shop." 1.Your local hobby shop drone will not be able to fly for 20 hours like a fixed wing Scan Eagle. Bad comparison. 2. Modifying drones to be used for combat is cheap if you don't count the labor cost, an…

> will likely take enough labor time to verify, let alone certify

All that to say that US desperately needs to copy Ukrainian model. Lots of small manufacturers and an excellent skunk works team for very quick iteration.