• treadful@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    81
    ·
    3 days ago

    “Normally what would happen… is like one cop would have heard that, flip on the blue lights, race down there… and someone’s about to die,” [Flock CEO Garrett] Langley explained, describing a case in which a woman called 911 on a man, who later turned out to be holding a lighter, not a gun, as initially suspected. “Instead, they launch the drone.”

    Langley claimed that “we have thousands and thousands of stories like that where communities are safer now with our drones. They’re safer with our cameras.”

    That’s your prime example of a community becoming safer? The cops droning a mf because he lit a cigarette and some Karen panicked? You’re the CEO of the fucking company with like the worst PR and you say this shit.

    • fartographer@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      24 hours ago

      How does that even change the situation to make things safer? Are they gonna crash the drone into a suspect to diffuse a situation? Unless Flock is advertising domestic drone strikes, then the only feasible deliverables are more spying and more profiling.

    • bcgm3@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 day ago

      I read it as the drones protecting the civilians from the trigger-happy cops rushing in first.

    • turtlesareneat@piefed.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      28
      ·
      2 days ago

      “We know cops are racist so we’ve lessened their load by making our drones racist too.”

      “Why are they not clapping”

  • Avicenna@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    2 days ago

    Once this becomes the norm next podcast is “What if we put small tasers on the drones? Our communities become much safer!”. And then handguns etc…

  • undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    55
    ·
    edit-2
    3 days ago

    Frankly, what a bunch of fucking creeps. Does no one else find it weird that they’re hellbent on spying on people? If it weren’t for the government we’d probably lock up these fucking psychos.

    • chilicheeselies@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 day ago

      They will go down kicking and screaming. A company like flock has tons of investor capital. That results in a board putting tons of pressure on executive leadership. They will never go “oops nevermind this was a bad idea”. It’s just a other front in the class war against the billionaire Epstein class.

    • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      26
      ·
      3 days ago

      Next week having closed courtains will be illegal. What’s going on in there? Probably something suspicious! Why is your bathroom window frosted?!

    • Malyca@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      3 days ago

      I have no doubt this is thiel’s work. He needs the data for his surveillance machine.

  • mrmisses@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    66
    ·
    3 days ago

    Are they going to follow FAA rules then or just do whatever they want and kill people every now and then when they crash/fall out of the sky?

      • mrmisses@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 day ago

        Yes. They are also not allowed to be over people (including traffic) unless it’s just to pass over to move to another area with no people (not allowed to continuously pass over people) unless they are below a certain, very low, weight. I think only one drone fits that category last I checked.

        I have my commercial drone license but quit the job that required it so I am a little rusty on the rules

    • Andrew Beveridge@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      43
      ·
      3 days ago

      No, they’ll do whatever they want and kill people deliberately, frequently, whenever they say something which disagrees with the dictatorship state definition of truth. Give it a decade

    • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      2 days ago

      Well when they crash the company needs to replace the whole drone, so they are probably going to try to avoid that when possible.

      That said, they should have to obey faa regs, but while the laws for private use are pretty clear, the commercial use regulations are layered and sort of in flux. Major operators are always pushing to have laws adjusted, and because leadership in the US is generally overly supportive of big business, those changes often go into place.

      In other words, there ARE laws, but you know, it’s the US, so they can probably change them.

      • Pika@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 days ago

        I think this will depend less on the FAA and more on local jurisdiction. the FAA doesn’t really have that much restrictions in place for low altitude drones (< 400 ft) they require it to be registered due to commercial but, the 2026 modifications for usage removed a lot of the safety barriers and controls that were in place for them. Now it’s basically as long as its registered and the lights are bright enough to be seen, it’s allowed unless there’s a local law forbidding it.

      • village604@adultswim.fan
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        2 days ago

        I mean, that’s one of the easier problems to solve. Basically make them a Roomba that has a set flight plan where it returns to its charging station at the end, and have enough that they can swap out and still keep coverage.

        And depending on how it’s made, powerless gliding is an option. They already use gliders in some places for speed limit enforcement.

  • rumba@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 days ago

    I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. Drones are cheap. Automating their flight is a super solved problem. At some point every cop car will have a drone on demand that can pop out and follow. They’ll launch some slow movers with big blades and just have them patrol. 30-40 minute flights.