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The Almighty Buck Wireless Networking Technology

Russia Debuts Postal Drone, Which Immediately Crashes Into Wall (futurism.com) 107

Posted by BeauHD from the life-comes-at-you-fast dept.
On Monday, Russia's postal service tested a delivery drone in the city of Ulan-Ude, Siberia, -- and it went horribly wrong. According to Futurism, soon after launch it crashed violently into the wall of a nearby building, "turning the UAV into a mess of jumbled parts." From the report: Here was the original plan for Monday's test. The $20,000 drone was supposed to pick up a small package and deliver it to a nearby village, Reuters reports. Instead the device failed spectacularly, only making it a short distance before crashing into a three-story building. The small crowd gathered to watch the test can be heard uttering expletives, according to Reuters. No one was injured in the crash, and it didn't do any damage, except to Russia's pride. The organizers aren't quite sure what went wrong, but they suspect the 100 or so nearby wifi spots could have had something to do with it.
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Russia Debuts Postal Drone, Which Immediately Crashes Into Wall More

Russia Debuts Postal Drone, Which Immediately Crashes Into Wall

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  • Fake News (Score:3, Funny)

    by sexconker ( 1179573 ) on Tuesday April 03, 2018 @06:33PM (#56376467)

    And CNN expects me to believe they "hacked the election"?

    Sad!

  • Well then (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03, 2018 @06:35PM (#56376477)

    The US Postal Service will take 8000 of them.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      So then they can help deliver Amazon products.

  • What's your take on this, Russian trolls? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The Russian's built a building so fast the flight control couldn't see it coming?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Russia was so advanced that it could shape elections all over the West in almost magical ways using cyber.
      Now a drone is beyond the skills of Russia.
      This drone news proves Russia is not a master of all new things cyber.
      Elections globally had very normal domestic issues sway results.
      Cant fly drone in 2018 but can sneak past best generations of NSA, GCHQ experts for decades of cyber in the West?

      • Russia was so advanced that it could shape elections all over the West in almost magical ways using cyber.
        Now a drone is beyond the skills of Russia.
        This drone news proves Russia is not a master of all new things cyber.

        Hold on, are you seriously trying to draw a line between this and election influencing? I see this paragraph in TFA:

        Russian Post was quick to distance itself from the drone crash, saying it was present at the launch merely as a guest. It said the drone was made by a company called Rudron/Expeditor 3M, which had organized the testing.

        Now, you're seriously, and presumably with a straight face, trying to say that because of this failed test launch in the 54th most populous region in Russia, in Siberia near Lake Baikal on the border with Mongolia, which by the way was organized by a private company, that this is proof that the federal security services and whatever other government organizations are incapable of influencing

    • Naw! They're probably using Telsa Autopilot software, so it can't see stationary objects!

  • Seeing the building it incorrectly identified it as the Trump Tower, got emotional and stumbled.

  • The Drone Drank Too Much Vodka Before Takeoff (Score:4, Funny)

    by dryriver ( 1010635 ) on Tuesday April 03, 2018 @06:40PM (#56376513)
    Its software then thought that the building wall was something the drone could make love to.
    • Maybe. The last few seconds did not exactly look like controlled flight; meaning the software was operating as expected except for missing the fact that a building was in the way. Maybe the test package was rather heavy and shifted off-center after launch, pulling the drone into an uncontrollable bank. Or maybe the drone was meant to be launched manually by a human operator, then fly on GPS (well, GLONASS probably) to its intended destination where a second operator would assume control for the landing..

      • Based on my experience with my 680 class hexacopter (with Pixhawk autopilot), there was certainly no software control of it when it crashed at all. The software just can't fly like that.
        Next guess would be a motor failure but that doesn't work either as hexes and octos can fly with diminished performance with a failed motor.

        It actually looks like half the drone lost all power, while the other half didn't hence the flipping motion.
        I wonder if they power it from two batteries, one handling half the motors and

  • Reuters link has video (Score:5, Informative)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Tuesday April 03, 2018 @06:41PM (#56376521)

    Things do indeed appear to have gone very wrong.

    https://www.reuters.com/articl... [reuters.com]

    • Hilarious level of safety precautions.

      • Given how fast the drone was going, they’re fortunate it didn’t go through either of the windows on either side of the point of impact! There could’ve been serious injuries.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hey! ( 33014 )

        Back in the Cold War there used to be a saying: an American will do anything if there's enough insurance. A Russian will do anything if there's enough vodka.

      • Look at the wreckage. One of the propeller blades is bent 90 degrees. Those are metal propellers. Crazy Ruskys. How do you say 'resonance shmesonance' in Russian.

        Not like a composite prop is your friend, but those are literal spinning knives. Going flat horizontal at impact by my eye. Full throttle by my ear.

        They're lucky, mothers with kids in frame. Everybody way too close.

        • Those are metal propellers

          No they aren't. They are carbon fibre.

          • Carbon fibre does not bend, it breaks. Those are metal.

            • Click here [reuters.com], scroll to the bottom, click on the picture of the wreck to make it larger. There's a second picture in the slideshow. Maybe my second-hand wild assumption skills aren't up to yours, but I'm thinking those aren't metal.

              • Not only are they not metal but from the picture you linked you can actually see the bits of fibre hanging out at some of the broken joints.

            • Carbon fibre does not bend, it breaks. Those are metal.

              You're absolutely right about the first part. There's not a single bent propeller in any picture, I mean other than the native bend of that propeller design. There are however plenty showing perfect flat snaps along with the telltale bits of fibre reinforcement hanging out at the break point.

              There is ZERO reason to manufacture a propeller that size out of metal. And they aren't metal.

    • Looks very similar to the kind of response you get when a motor or propeller fails. The WiFi had nothing to do with it. It didn't fly into the building, it hit the building as it fell out of the sky.

  • *crash sound*

    Blyat

    BLYAT!

  • What happened to the small package??

  • It must have been a CIA plot to discredit Putin and embarrass the Russian People. Ask anybody in the Russian media.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      FSB now understands how CIA and MI6 are altering Russian drone software.
      The West is sending Russian drones back to the repair shop using new cyber skills.
  • Notice the crowd was all men. The women were busy actually doing real work. Here is a tip idiots: you can pay a worker a tenth of that to deliver your stupid mail.

    • https://www.reuters.com/articl... [reuters.com]

      I think one of the men we see on the left (the one with the long hair, the purple coat, the knee-high boots and the beige purse) is kind of cute. Am I gay?

      But yes, in this crowd I count 18 men for 8 women. PATRIARCHY!!! DEATH TO ALL MEN!!!

      As for your tip, since you seem to think we should not use technology, can I ask what the fuck you doing on this website?

  • LOL (Score:5, Funny)

    by Archfeld ( 6757 ) <treboreel@live.com> on Tuesday April 03, 2018 @06:56PM (#56376615) Journal

    Even post office Drones go postal.

  • The poor drone probably committed suicide. Would you be happy having to deliver packages in Siberia?

    It reminds me of that scene from Robocop 2 [youtube.com] when they were testing the new Robocop prototypes.

  • Crash (Score:1)

    by pdms ( 5197257 )
    And I thought FedEx was rough on my packages

  • I guess this means systemd has finally reached Russia. Time to sell my gazprom stock.

  • This drone looks like it was programmed by watching the workers at my Post Office. They have the same effect on packages.

  • This is all very reminiscent of early attempts at flight 100 years ago that featured crowds and officials gathering to watch a revolutionary new technology only for it to embarrassingly fail.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    Maybe in 20 years time I guess.


  • I've ordered a kettle bell workout set via drone delivery for tomorrow, what's the worst that can happen?
  • is paved with failures.

    Imagine freeing the roads from 50% of traffic, which is dealing with one or another form of delivery.

  • If you already knew it worked perfectly, you wouldn't need to test it.

  • ... but they have nuclear cruise missiles? Should we worry?

  • But Boss, the lab test was a success! The dummy's head did not get chopped off!
     
    That was no dummy!He was the guy holding the drone!

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