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?"
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.
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:5, Insightful)
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]