A New Use For Drones: Traffic Scouting 144
Nerval's Lobster writes "Renault's new concept car gives drivers an unusual companion: a small flying drone, controllable via tablet or preset GPS waypoints, which scans the area ahead for obstacles and traffic. The so-called 'flying companion' can exit the vehicle via a retractable hatch in the roof, and buzz around the immediate vicinity shooting video and photos; as this is a concept, actual hardware and software specs aren't available, although Renault's engineers envision something closer to the size of a small bird than some of the larger drones currently available. But how practical is a 'driving drone'? Considering all the accidents caused by people texting or Web-surfing while driving, it seems questionable to introduce a piece of hardware that could prove even more distracting—imagine trying to successfully guide a drone with touch-screen controls while navigating a fast-paced roadway, and you can see why the idea of a "flying companion" would raise the collective blood pressure of traffic-safety officials. Yes, it would be safer for a passenger to handle drone-flying duties while the driver concentrates on the road; but it's also a near-certainty, if such a concept ever went into production, that more than one driver would attempt to multi-task the navigation of two vehicles at once. Do you think this idea is feasible?"
Fuck Beta (Score:1, Informative)
Please post this to new articles if it hasn't been posted yet. (Copy-paste the html from here [pastebin.com] so links don't get mangled!)
On February 5, 2014, Slashdot announced through a javascript popup that they are starting to "move in to" the new Slashdot Beta design. Slashdot Beta is a trend-following attempt to give Slashdot a fresh look, an approach that has led to less space for text and an abandonment of the traditional Slashdot look. Much worse than that, Slashdot Beta fundamentally breaks the classic Slashdot discussion and moderation system.
If you haven't seen Slashdot Beta already, open this [slashdot.org] in a new tab. After seeing that, click here [slashdot.org] to return to classic Slashdot.
We should boycott stories and only discuss the abomination that is Slashdot Beta until Dice abandons the project.
We should boycott slashdot entirely during the week of Feb 10 to Feb 17 as part of the wider slashcott [slashdot.org]
Moderators - only spend mod points on comments that discuss Beta
Commentors - only discuss Beta
http://slashdot.org/recent [slashdot.org] - Vote up the Fuck Beta stories
Keep this up for a few days and we may finally get the PHBs attention.
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Discussion of Beta: http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=56395415 [slashdot.org]
Discussion of where to go if Beta goes live: http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&type=submission&id=3321441 [slashdot.org]
Alternative Slashdot: http://altslashdot.org [altslashdot.org] (thanks Okian Warrior (537106) [slashdot.org])
Re:Kill Beta! (Score:5, Informative)
It's not that I don't believe you...but I don't believe you. Find a hole in the post ID numbers where yours used to be. It looks like they're incremental, so if there is a post 47190001 and 47190003 but no 47190002, then we know something is wrong. (Same thing if they fill the gap with a later post and the timestamp on 47190002 is greater than the one on 47190003.) Yeah yeah I know it's a pain to track all the post IDs you make, but for something like this, if it's really happening to you, it would be worthwhile.
One of the absolute core tenets of Slashdot has always been that they don't delete things (unless someone sues them for a billion dollars, and even then, only once). It's important to be able to prove it if it happens.
Re:Kill Beta! (Score:4, Informative)
To be clear, I looked at the Beta site and am in line with the general thinking. Having been a /. member since 2000 there is something solid about the look and feel that has not changed much in over 14 years. Clearly the beta site is trying to look like other sites (presumably held by Dice?) and it does not work (or look good).
I made my comment before I read some posts that advocated a protest/boycott. How funny though, with all the "we need to boycott" statements i've read in /. over the years taht was met with "grow up, boycotts don't work", here is now one called on the fertile soil of /. ... will this one work?
I'm going otu on a limb and say, boycotts never work unless you can truly convince the vast majority to join in and I'm guessing that demographics of /. have changed. Current owners figure they can weather the storm.
As for me, I may check out this very young upstart [altslashdot.org] I just read about here on this site. Though I'll hang with this ship for a bit, I'll check out the upstart and at the least, add my voice (I cannot help code as I don't do python).