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!
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: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: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: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.