Navy Drone Wanders Into Restricted Airspace Around Washington

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/us/26drone.html?_r=3&partner=rss&emc=rss

by ph0rque • 16 years ago

24 22 16 years ago

nytimes.com

daychilde• 16 years ago

Reminds me of an episode of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex...

mikemol• 16 years ago

You're thinking of 2nd Gig.

chopsueyar• 16 years ago

I think it is cool that it is semi-autonomous.

I don't think it is cool that the US military is using it for law enforcement operations in Central America.

Can't wait until the US starts blanketing various countries with drones. Excellent precedent.

Estragon• 16 years ago

I understand Foucault observed that imperial countries tended to bring their methods of colonial control back to control their home populations, in a sense colonizing themselves. Similarly, it seems like it's only a matter of time before this ubiquitous surveillance and automated enforcement are used in developed, democratic countries.

simonsarris• 16 years ago

Well the British Empire isn't exactly as large as it was in its imperial days but London could be fairly accurately described as ubiquitously surveillanced, perhaps moreso with CCTV than mere (ha) UAVs would allow, since the CCTV cams permeate urban canopies (buildings).

jrockway• 16 years ago

Can't wait until the US starts blanketing various countries with drones. Excellent precedent.

But when the drones invade the US, the gun nuts will finally have something to do!

cma• 16 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shape_of_Things_to_Come

tomjen3• 16 years ago

I wonder, how much damage could you actually do with that drone? I mean, if it isn't armed then there isn't much too this story - failures happen all the time.

martey• 16 years ago

A 600 lb helicopter landing on your house would do significant amounts of damage.

hammmatt2• 16 years ago

Or a parking lot, street or intersection.

Let's put that Chevy 'Like A Rock' slogan to the test!

billswift• 16 years ago

Depends on how concentrated the weight is and how hard it hits. Most roofs can handle a bunch of 200 pound roofers working on them, or tons of snow, without any difficulty.

Groxx2• 16 years ago

But failures don't always go for a 23-mile joy-ride into restricted airspace. That's kinda cool.

As to damage, given the size, probably not a whole lot if it just died and fell. Might kill someone who's incredibly unlucky. But consider if it flew around at a really low altitude: power lines, people, windows, all in range of the blades. Given that it went 23 miles on its own, having working ground-avoidance software isn't an unreasonable assumption.

inferno0069• 16 years ago

From the article: it "was flying at 2,000 feet".

I see no reason to assume it would have any ground-avoidance software besides flying higher if it detects it's near the ground.

maushu• 16 years ago

And so skynet begins.

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

hammmatt2• 16 years ago

Funny joke.

But I'm pretty sure this reinforces how far away our robot overlords still remain.

drtse4• 16 years ago

Additional info on The Register: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1635807

Semiapies2• 16 years ago

Unmentioned in this story: what happened when a low-flying aircraft entered restricted airspace around DC? Did they already know it was this wayward drone, either by transponder or the drone's ground crew informing them?

Poiesis• 16 years ago

Actually, this question was addressed by the best line in the story: The Navy did not describe the scene inside the ground station as operators sought to re-establish control with the drone.

Semiapies2• 16 years ago

The ground station was where the operators were controlling (or not, as it happened) the drone from. It wasn't the place air traffic was being monitored or where reactions to a blip in restricted airspace would be determined.

Navy Drone Wanders Into Restricted Airspace Around Washington

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