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Technology, regulations and innovations

August 29, 2014 By DanThornton Leave a Comment

Google has just released a video revealing their work on a drone delivery system, named Project Wing, which has been undergoing testing in Australia.

What struck me was that obviously Australia makes sense in terms of a testbed for large distances and potentially isolated customers, but also perhaps somewhere which isn’t tightening up regulations on drone flights as quickly as in the U.S and UK.

After all, in the U.S, the FAA has already banned the use of drones to deliver packages.

Meanwhile it’s likely Amazon will start actually delivering products via drones in India in the near future, according to reports.

Obviously there are safety implications in drone flights, along with other potential problems and hazards to overcome. But it seems that the response in the UK and U.S is rapidly becoming one in which governments and law enforcement agencies are undoubtedly increasing their drone usage all the time, but private companies and individuals are going to find themselves more and more restricted in what they can do.

That’s not only got implications for the innovation possible by those private concerns, but also how that feeds into advancements which governments might want to utilise. If India leads the way in drone deliveries, it’s going to lead the way in drone technology too.

In the meantime, I’ll be left waiting for a service which can deliver grilled steak tacos to my house every day for lunch.

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Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: amazon, drones, google, project wing

A particularly scary TED video about our drone future

July 15, 2013 By DanThornton Leave a Comment

I’m obviously a big fan of technology, and I’m fascinated by the possibilities already being made into reality by remote and autonomous drones. There’s plenty of positive uses for that technology, particularly as a fan of Mexican food who lives miles from the nearest restaurant.

I’m also a fan of author Daniel Suarez, who I highly recommend if you like technology-based thrillers. Check out Daemon, Freedom and Kill Decision.

But having read his fiction, (and that of Jon Evans, who covers similar ground in Swarm), the following TED talk is a mightily disturbing summary of some of the real world events and progress which has inspired their fiction.

Put simply, not only do autonomous drones have the capability to change the face of modern military warfare, but in fact could change the structure and fabric of our whole society. And the main reason is that it brings the ability to wage completely anonymous warfare into the hands of companies, organisations and wealthy individuals.

The legal system moves at a much slower pace than technology, and often it causes debate and laughter when the subject is an area like Digital Rights Management, and lives might be ruined but not lost.

But this is an area which political and legal minds need to be tackling right now around the globe.

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Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: anonymous drones, autonomous drones, daniel suarez, drones, warfare

Dan

Sidebar Profile Founder at TheWayoftheWeb and Hot Mod Media. Go there for Content, Marketing and Business. Co-founder, Digital People in Peterborough and dogsbody at Peterborough STEM Festival. Stay here for more personal stuff, pop culture, and other loosely related cool stuff. More about me.

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