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?"
Kill Beta! (Score:1, Interesting)
Boycott on next week!
Re:Kill Beta! (Score:5, Interesting)
They're also actually deleting posts now too. Quite a few of mine have disappeared. Amazing that they have time for this, what with all the effort they're putting into listening to us and modifying the beta accordingly.
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, Interesting)
You can't. The comment list is suddenly broken now too. I can only look at about the last 20 or so posts (the list end abruptly and there is no longer an option to go to the next page). But I looked back through the articles from this morning and can tell you that several of my posts that I know were there are suddenly gone.
Re:Kill Beta! (Score:5, Insightful)
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That's a good idea.
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"Next time one is deleted you will be able to prove it."
That does nothing to prevent, or prove, other methods of stifling dissent--moderation abuses.
I've been posting the following in several places at once--AFTER I watched the first one get modded up to +5, and almost instantly (less then 30 seconds) go back to +1)--and every single time...it gets modded up, then back down and then, once the body of the post is no longer visible, STAY THERE.
So, fuck you, Dice. Here goes again.
US5722418
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GoogleGlas
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I found an example. One of the them is comment #46185253. You can still see it here [slashdot.org] if you go to it manually. But if you go to the actual article [slashdot.org], it's gone. It was under the top "Why?" thread. But now it's gone from the comments when you look at them in the article.
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You can't even see it if you expand out the "Why?" thread all the way. Here [slashdot.org].
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I hope you're right. But I sure didn't see it before. I even did a search, expanded out every sub-thread--nothing.
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Simple explanation on this, actually. That article has a ton of comments, so I had to click "Load More Comments" before I could see your reply #46185253.
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I see it in Classic, but i had to press "Load more" on the beta site probably 10 times before it magically appeared where it was supposed to in the nested tree (which is total shit, nobody's going to scroll back up to see if new replies were loaded in the middle of all the stuff we just read through.)
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FUCK BETA
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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.
Indeed, which is why talk of post deletions is so important to verify. Has it really become that kind of site? Just another barely concealed attempt to exploit an actual community into providing advertising impressions?
Deleting posts would be the death knell for me. The way we use the site is important, but the ethos of it is moreso. A Slashdot that arbitrarily deletes things it deems unwanted isn't one I'd like to contribute to.
I'm sure we'll find out, one way of another.
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To be fair, many of the posts are variations of "BETA IS TEH SUKZ" and little in suggestions (other then shut it down). Perhaps constructive criticism would not hurt.
Re:Kill Beta! (Score:4, Insightful)
Quite a bit of constructive criticism has been offered (not just in the last two days, but for months now). The exact complaints are pretty damned clear at this point. The problem isn't that they aren't aware of the problems with the beta. The problem is that they've not been corrected, and now they're going to force the beta on us.
I personally don't care about the beta, as long as we can keep the Classic option. But if you're going to force it on me, at least make sure that you're not stripping functionality away from me. Add whatever dumb feature you like (as long as it doesn't get in my way), but don't take away my ability to see a simple comment list with replies and mods listed. Quite a few others have also complained about the lack of Unicode support, the annoying whitespace issues, and onerous javascript.
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).
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"Delete the beta source code and fire the devs/managers responsible for designing it" (which is, effectively, what is being said when people post "BETA IS TEH SUKZ" in the numbers that they are IS constructive criticism. The problem is that Dice and/or the Slashdot managers don't want to hear it...
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So beta really is some PHB's pet project, then.
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Fuck Beta! Fuck Beta
My Lord! The peasants are revolting!
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We're discussing why the beta suck, not why Slashdotters don't have girlfriends. Try to stay on topic.
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 d
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reddit (Score:1)
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You guys are retarded. Tons of accusations of deleted posts but not one verifiable instance?
Does this idea make sense? (Score:1)
Sure, if your car is the only car doing it.
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Eh, it will give us something else to prop up against telephone poles alongside the lost hubcaps.
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Now in the woods this would be great for scouting prospective camping/hunting areas prior to venturing out.
That's actually a great idea - these would be great for wildlife management/observation. Choppers are loud, these are nowhere nearly as loud.
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Even assuming an AI that
It's been done before (Score:3, Interesting)
More than 10 years ago even! [cmu.edu]
If only Dice had a way to learn from the past... [slashdot.org]
Re:It's been done before - It was the "G" button.. (Score:2)
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Now if they make it operate by pressing 'G', that will be cool. Something interesting stuck me watching that clip (besides the memories, I loved Speed Racer), the Mach Five was a little environmentally unfriendly. Cutting down trees without concern about the impact of the forest, for shame. I think later on there was a dump oil mod (or maybe that was the bad guys) which certainly did not help the environment either. Watching Speed Racer did not turn me into a race car driver, but in an odd way, I thunk
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Also my first thought and glad I found the same thought here so I didn't become redundant.
Question: Doesn't this qualify as Prior Art? It should.
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I seem to recall sketching up this idea when I was 10 years old, just after watching Smokey and the Bandit. No drones then, so the passenger (navigator) in the car flew an RC plane ahead to look for Smokey...
Why manual controls? (Score:1)
Why on earth would you need to manually control the drone? It could easily know the route you are intending to take, and could be 100% automated...
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Why on earth would you need to manually control the drone? It could easily know the route you are intending to take, and could be 100% automated...
And the airspace over heavy traffic will be totally clear, right?
You will be the only drone user on the road?
All the drones will be maintained in 100% working order, just like the cars are?
And all drivers will resist the urge to watch their drone?
And no one would think of hacking them, right?
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Every drone could have it's own small radio transmitter. If it detected the signal of another drone (the inverse square distance law), it could adjust it's course automatically.
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Would it not be easier.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Would it not be easier to just install traffic monitoring devices along roadways, and let your car's on-board navigation system interface with those? That way you don't need the traffic scouting drone, and the inherent risks that come with trying to operate one while driving.
I could see it now.. inattentive drivers/operaters causing the traffic scouting drones to collide with other traffic scouting drones, creating drone "road kill". What a mess.. No, this is a Bad Idea(TM) all around.
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Would it not be easier to just install traffic monitoring devices along roadways, and let your car's on-board navigation system interface with those? That way you don't need the traffic scouting drone, and the inherent risks that come with trying to operate one while driving.
Everybody is carrying a traffic monitoring device [google.com] in their pocket or purse. Its pretty accurate and up to date too.
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Will it stream me uncensored video of the gory carnage that's blocking the road?
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What you're talking about is practical - what Renault is showing is a concept car.
Concepts usually include highly desirable (at first glance) features that never become practical enough for production. There are exceptions, but they are rare.
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Wait what? No monitoring is evil, and bad. Google is just using their data to make advertising money. /Slashdot mentality.
It can't possibly be that they use their tracking data to provide me something useful, remember I'm just a product!
No seriously this is the mentality of some people here. I actually had someone try and tell me they'd rather have their taxes spent on a city based traffic monitoring scheme in every city in the world than to use something that people already have. What a wasteful idea.
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Would it not be easier to just install traffic monitoring devices along roadways, and let your car's on-board navigation system interface with those?
and that how is supposed to be fun?
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What you mean like this http://www.trafficscotland.org... [trafficscotland.org]
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In the ideal world, you'd share your drone with other views, broadcasting like TV.
You'd have a database of channels for segments of road and would flip between them, automatically.
The traffic authority would operate the drones, which would be automatic because they are GPS guided.
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... or the traffic authority could just install static monitors. Like what they already do in some places... [511ga.org]
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Exactly how I see it playing out. There will be more traffic jams and crashes in the sky from all of these drones filling the air. Yes - parts will rain down from the sky and kill small children. The sky will go black from the flocks of drones. Did they get this idea from playing Call of Duty?
Next somebody will sell an accessory laser so your drone can shoot others out of the sky as a sort of crash avoidance system.
Available only to the rich.
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Hey, Drone Wars would give us something to do while we sit on the parking lot er I75...
Finally! (Score:2)
Now we all get to be Speed Racer!
More Feasible Than Beta (Score:1)
Viper did this, and they got cancelled, so.... (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
~Sticky
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Drones Bomb Beta HQ (Score:1, Offtopic)
Fuck Beta. The community should come together, put together a drone, and have it trail a banner over the Dice HQ building that says: "F U C K B E T A." I've got a five on it, if we can make this happen.
Dangerous if two or more at once (Score:2)
Err, what happens if two or three or more users are flying these at the same time, along the same ideal path and elevation? Until we get some real nice automated localized collision avoidance, you're going to end up with tangled wrecks of drones falling out of the sky into traffic.
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mod parent up.
How shall we handle many automated drones above a highway in a way that guarantees I won't get one into my windscreen?
This not to talk about responsibility share in the event of such an accident, nor about the related laws that remain to be crafted...
Arm it! (Score:2, Funny)
beta beta beta (Score:1, Offtopic)
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 d
Drones + automated cars (Score:1)
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But of course, by then you might as well just have the city/town provide the drones themselves instead of having thousand drones from a thousand drivers. I think.
just stop (Score:1)
Go Speed Racer Go (Score:2)
The only way this could be useful... (Score:2)
The only way this could be useful is if it unleashes a finger of doom from a minigun to do away with the "motorist" causing the backup.
Although, I'll "settle" for having this scout go out, locate said "motorist" and send me back footage of why this one person is causing the 2 mile backup behind them.
My morbid sense of curiosity demands that I know who the fuck just backed up the turnpike.
Beta protest (Score:2)
How about protesting (and not commenting) on even days and commenting normally on odd days? That way, Dice will be able to gauge how much of their so called "audience" that creates the actual deliverable of the site is leaving for good, while still preserving some value just in case they see the error of their ways soon.
It's for off-road use (Score:2)
This might, marginally, make sense for serious off-roaders, which is what Renault is pitching. There's been a lot of interest in this in the military, where knowing what's over the next hill can save your life. For road driving, it's silly.
wank wank wank (Score:2)
Noooooooooo! The stupidity of manual driver control (are there really people out there this fucking dumb?) would just give them the reason they're seeking anyway to clamp down on a showy and unorthodox public behaviour.
Everyone else, you can boycott the BETA. I'm going to trash the stupidity of the story submission in the vast majority of stories that show up here now. To each his own.
A
Great for 1 pct Bad for 99 pct (Score:1)
This is the kind of military model scout concept that works great when the 1 percent do it - but utterly fails when the 99 percent do it.
One drone over a traffic jam is one thing.
6543 drones over a traffic jam crashing into planes and helicopters and police drones and DOT drones is a total catastrophe.
People don't get that stuff that works when very FEW people use them is ok but when anyone can buy it, the impacts - and by this I mean the objects falling from 1000 feet through your sunroof and killing you o
Combine this with the kill switch and... (Score:2)
Combine this drone with the phone/tablet killswitch and much hilarity can be had!
- or -
A new sport. After all, skeets can't dodge, and mailboxes are just too easy a target... Highway drone shooting!
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I used to think /.'s biggest problem was dups! Now we've got BETA -- and I promise to NEVER complain about dups again!
Not really no. (Score:2)
I have had this daydream before, many times actually. In theory it wouldn't really even need to be driven by the driver but could be nearly completely autonomous, or sync up to navigation systems already being used to provide more relevant data....etc. Sure.
However, I doubt it would be that useful in many situations. Sure it may be able to bring back some nice shots, or something but, if you are stuck in traffic, you are stuck. If its about to clear up, it may clear up before your drone can return.
Mostly it
Pissed off drivers, drones as.... (Score:1)
How about a periscope instead? (Score:2, Insightful)
I've often wished for one of those in the car.
Especially after jacked up trucks with with tractor tires became popular.
And please vote this out of the Firehose:
http://slashdot.org/submission... [slashdot.org]
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Someone came around over 24 hours later to mod my suggestion for a periscope as a drone alternative off-topic.
Is Dice sending out the goon squads now?
Disapoint... (Score:5, Funny)
3rd person view in 3...2...1 (Score:2)
There's no need for a human operator in this case because it's just keeping a static position relative to your vehicle.
What do you think sirs? I'm quite anti-drone, but given that our Orwellian police state seems dead set on having them we may as well get a few perks too.
Solution (Score:2)
Or... (Score:1)
Just use Google Maps.
need cooperating drone swarm (Score:1)
By the time the drone has enough collision-avoidance to keep from crashing into everyone else's drones (probably using some kind of identifying beacon), it will be better to have the drones form a mesh network to transmit views from different places, than to have each drone fly to a point of interest to get their own (redundant) view.
If I owned a bird-sized drone... (Score:2)
Until bird-sized drones become as cheap as disposable cell phones, no one will fork out money for a one that's limited to the single use of scouting traffic, or limited to being able to communicate only with a Renault vehicle. It will have to be a general-purpose device, able to communicate via wi-fi (or similar non-proprietary means) with other computing devices.
And there are better ways to gather data about traffic... such as the Waze app [wikipedia.org], which knows the precise speed and position of other Waze users wh
2 examples in fiction (Score:2)
Both on anime race cars, both used for scouting ahead and navigation.
Speed Racer's Mach 5 could launch a fixed-wing drone that looked like a bird. Also good for shenanigans :-P
The Cyber Formula (basically fantasy F1) cars from Future GPX Cyber Formula launched what we might today call "atmospheric satellites." It gave live maps and provided something like a GPS signal, I guess the authors thought GPS would never be available to civilians. Only slightly better than what you can get on a smartphone today. Als
Is it a bird, a plane, no its superman (Score:2)
I cant wait for my personal drone to fly me to worj=k, with Lois Lane in my arms
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Can I come back?
No.
Besides, it looks like you've already posted several times in this thread.
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No, but Timothy has PROMISED that they'll listen to us, the audience, and CONSIDER our recommendations. Honest injun. Pinkie swear!
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Umm... bridges? Power lines?
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Um, whoosh?
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Great idea! We can tie the kites to bridges. And power lines!
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The comment listing is broken now too (only shows one page, with no "Next" option). And it looks like the editors are trying to delete posts and downmod all the beta posters. Guess they found the time to do all that in between listening to us and changing the beta based on our valued input.
Re:Maybe for parking (Score:5, Interesting)
I would love something like this for parking, especially if it could be semi-automated. Push a button, drone flies up and does a survey of the parking lot. It then finds a space and "squats" it for you while you drive there on the ground.
I even thought of this idea like 10 years ago, when trying to come up with random ideas for fictitious gov't technology programs while bored at work. I think the name we coined was "OPLSS" (pronounced "Hopeless"), for "Objective Parking Lot Survey System".
But, just like many superpowers we'd all love to have, this sort of thing is *only* useful if you're the only one who has it. If everyone had this capability, it would cause far more problems than it would solve.
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The speed of the car would also be automatically limited while the drone is in the air so that the car can't get ahead of the drone, you probably wouldn't be able to launch the drone while moving anyway.
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There are already production cars with night vision and thermal vision.
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Not if it doesn't include working links...