Dubai Police Get Hoverbikes (mashable.com) 118
An anonymous reader quotes Mashable:
The Dubai police, which already has luxury patrol cars, self-driving pursuit drones, and a robot officer, just announced it will soon have officers buzzing around on hoverbikes, which look like an early version of the speeder bikes used by the scout troopers on Endor in Return of the Jedi. The force (see what I did there?) unveiled its new Hoversurf Scorpion craft at the Gitex Technology Week conference, according to UAE English language publication Gulf News. The police force will use the hoverbike for emergency response scenarios, giving officers the ability to zoom over congested traffic conditions by taking to the air... The Scorpion can also fly autonomously for almost four miles at a time for other emergencies.
The fully-electric hoverbike stays aloft for about 25 minutes per charge at a top speed around 43 mph.
Gulf News also reported that Dubai police "unveiled robotic vehicles which will be equipped with biometric software to scan for wanted criminals and undesirable elements."
The fully-electric hoverbike stays aloft for about 25 minutes per charge at a top speed around 43 mph.
Gulf News also reported that Dubai police "unveiled robotic vehicles which will be equipped with biometric software to scan for wanted criminals and undesirable elements."
Can be taken out by EMP (Score:1)
Re:Can be taken out by EMP (Score:5, Insightful)
A well timed and well placed EMP would probably be a very painful experience for whomever was riding the hoverbike at the time.
As would contact with one of those open blades.
The video is long on fluff and short on any actual flying. Clearly, a long way from practical use.
Re: Can be taken out by EMP (Score:1)
It's a Russian design. They're a little less concerned about health and safety than we are in the West. "Pilot fell in blades, is mincemeat. Is pity, clean up pieces, fetch spare pilot."
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Umm?! I think a well place rock would be more than sufficient. Carbon fiber blades are lightweight, but not know for resiliency. You have 4 to choose from here. Take out any of them and you have a three legged table, and a dead policeman.
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It shows them fitting prop guards and then, oddly, flying around without them on.
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EMP! What can't it do?
Dr. Peter Vincent Pry (former CIA, policy wonk and author since) told Congress [c-span.org] (see 0:33:10) last Thursday that "we might not ever recover" from a single North Korean EMP attack. One attack will kill "millions of Americans."
I don't know if this is real. Puerto Rico and its craptacular 70 year old wood pole power grid notwithstanding, I don't believe most of our infrastructure is that fragile. I do know that a nuclear powered EMP pulse over North America won't disable our SLBM f
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Of course, something that doens't need electricity, like some combustion engines, aren't bothered by it at all.
Of course you can bet that hoverbike has lots of electricals, at the very least a processor to aid with balance & control, but as to shielding, probably not a thought that went through the engineers minds, especially
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Or the fuel pump in gasoline engines?
Or the inverters in electric cars?
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FCC title 47 part 15 regulation states:
interference must be accepted that may be caused by the operation of an authorized radio station, by another intentional or unintentional radiator, by industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) equipment, or by an incidental radiator.
So shielding against EMP is illegal. They've been planning this for decades! Pearl Harbor all over again!
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Can be taken out with a lasso.
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Besides, it's not like they can turn or stop worth a damn on those things.
Sure they look cool, and can ignore potholes while they fly in straight lines, but other than that, an expensive and risky waste of resources.
Much easier ... (Score:2)
Can be taken out by an awkwardly thrown loose ball of string.
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Also: beheadings on the fly! (Score:5, Funny)
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Citizens now call it "Dubye"
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I bet those suckers are rather lightweight and will shatter when almost anything solid impacts them
4 small props spinning fast enough to move a human and itself in that manner will certainly be enough to cut through human material. A 6 lb RC helicopter [dailymail.co.uk] went clean through a guy's skull.
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It's not actually for serious police work, it's a spectacle for tourists and a relatively cheap way to do some global advertising. Same as the expensive cop cars, the police don't actually use them to get to crimes at 200 MPH, they just make Dubai look like an ultra-luxury destination awash with money.
HoverQUAD (Score:2)
Re: HoverQUAD (Score:2)
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A top speed of 43mph? (Score:2)
Yeah... that'd be just fine for catching people speeding.
(eyeroll)
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Except they say it's for "The police force will use the hoverbike for emergency response scenarios, giving officers the ability to zoom over congested traffic conditions by taking to the air" not for catching speeders.
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
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The Arabian peninsula suffers, and... (Score:1)
... the oil potentates spend endlessly on luxury and toys.
Not the right product (Score:3)
Give me a regular bike where the (ducted / screened) blades fold down for flight when needed, controlled by wire so a computer can keep it level and steady and at a constant altitude so all the rider generally has to worry about is speed and direction.
That thing, as is, is a stupid waste of money.
Such emergencies (Score:2)
as someone kissing or holding hands. Yikes, better put a stop to that.
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We were talking about things that aren't actually hazardous, though.
geez (Score:3)
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That's what I was wondering. With just four engines, probably running at close to max already, loss of one would not seem to be recoverable. Certainly they've thought of that, though.
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Maybe it's supposed to be a helicopter replacement instead of a motorcycle replacement? Imagine the dust that thing would kick up in a 20 meter radius...
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Dust in Dubai? Nah...
Must be a joke (Score:4, Insightful)
>"giving officers the ability to zoom over congested traffic conditions by taking to the air...
Insanely unsafe to have that thing go OVER cars and people. 4 unprotected rotors? One operator error or equipment malfunction and it can chop people or things to bits or just fall out of the air like a 500 pound rock.
>"The fully-electric hoverbike stays aloft for about 25 minutes per charge"
And then you have to get back to the charger, so that is an outward range of what, 12.5 miles?? And it probably can only carry a single person with minimal equipment, right?
Is this a joke?
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The USA doesn't have the balls to develop new aviation technology. You'd rather cry like babies about health and safety issues.
That's the joke.
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Of course, with so little out there type research being done and publicized by corporations these days, we just hear about the lone inventors and small shops.
Besides, the US pretty much did 90% of the basic development of that kind of vehicle back in the 50s & 60s. It's just not practical. (Cool doesn't win wars or transport people safely.)
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I've got just two words (Score:1)
Ballistic Parachute
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Misplaced concerns regarding safety (Score:5, Funny)
And you all call yourself nerds...
That hover bike doesn't need lame crap like blade protectors. What it DOES need is a couple of rocket launchers.
Not only will you wipe out (Score:3)
but cut up by the blades.
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The only thing this is good for is to let some of them think that nobody will notice their small dicks.
3 ambulances for the price of one! (Score:2)
1 for the rider of the crashed "hoverbike"
1 for the poor soul now missing a limb thanks to the crashed "hoverbike"
Let's put on my controls engineer hat (Score:5, Insightful)
These statements generally hold true for all aircraft, which is why larger aircraft are "safer" from a wind gust perspective than smaller aircraft. So what we've got here is something that's pretty bad from a stability perspective being pitched for an application where agility is necessary and the wind gust environment around them skyscrapers in the desert is potentially quite severe.
More money than brains.
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Whop whop whop.
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As a 5" Mini Race Quad builder/pilot, your comment is interesting to me.
With mini quads, the largest weight is the battery (Typically 170 grams which is 50% of the craft weight). Because the battery has to be easily swapable, it is very often installed on top or on bottom of the frame, which puts it either above or below the center line of the props.
There is a long standing argument back and forth for which design is better, but because the power to weight ratio is so high and the PID loop in the flight con
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Wrong Hat. (Score:3)
You know, the Dubai police also have a fleet of 14 hypercars -- Bugattis, Lambos, McLarens. With your engineer hat, you'd wonder why not pick one and standardize on that?
Because they don't have them to chase down joy riders in other supercars, as most people assume. The Dubai police has a collection of million dollar cars for the same reason a middle-aged dot-com billionaire does: because they think it makes them look cool. The Dubai police hypercars don't do high speed chases on desert highways, they p
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Let's put on my robe and wizard hat. [megalomaniac.com]
Oops, sorry, wrong window.
Danger Will Robinson (Score:2)
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That's not kosher.
If you are going to make a "cops are pigs" joke then maybe a comment on "when pigs fly" is better.
I can just think of this hoverbike running out of charge while on the move over a crowded area. It's coming down, maybe with the blades still spinning, and it will make a mess. With enough charge for only 25 minutes it will be too easy to run out on even a short run out to a location and then it will have to find a place to land safely. If the area is too crowded for police on motorcycles,
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it's Dubai; you meant "halal".
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Nice try (Score:2)
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"They might as well just drive around in gold-plated police cars."
pretty sure they already do, which is why they needed something even more ridiculous to top it.
Splatter Proof Uniforms (Score:1)
Fahrenheit 451 Anyone? (Score:1)
In other news... (Score:2)
Dubai police are planning on significant attrition due to forced disability after many officers accidentally cut their legs off when flying these new devices, which have no propeller guards.
Your one-way ticket to midnight (Score:2)
Meanwhile, the sci-fi future the US is starting to resemble is Harry Canyon from Heavy Metal.
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What is the terminal velocity of an unladen eel?