Category: drones – Page 42
Axon has paused work on a project to build drones equipped with its Tasers. A majority of its artificial intelligence ethics board quit after the plan was announced last week.
Nine of the 12 members said in a resignation letter that, just a few weeks ago, the board voted 8–4 to recommend that Axon shouldn’t move forward with a pilot study for a Taser-equipped drone concept. “In that limited conception, the Taser-equipped drone was to be used only in situations in which it might avoid a police officer using a firearm, thereby potentially saving a life,” the nine board members wrote. They noted Axon might decline to follow that recommendation and were working on a report regarding measures the company should have in place were it to move forward.
The nine individuals said they were blindsided by an announcement from the company last Thursday — nine days after 19 elementary school students and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas — about starting development of such a drone. It had an aim of “incapacitating an active shooter in less than 60 seconds.” Axon said it “asked the board to re-engage and consider issuing further guidance and feedback on this capability.”
Remotely operated, non-lethal drones key in long-term plan to detect and stop mass shootings in less than 60 seconds
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. 0, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Axon (NASDAQ: AXON), the global leader in connected public safety technologies, today announced it has formally begun development of a non-lethal, remotely-operated TASER drone system as part of a long-term plan to stop mass shootings, and reaffirmed it is committed to public engagement and dialogue during the development process. This includes accelerating detection and improving real-time situational awareness of active shooter events, enhancing first responder effectiveness through VR training, and deploying remotely operated non-lethal drones capable of incapacitating an active shooter in less than 60 seconds.
Walmart expands drone delivery service
Posted in drones
U.S. retail giant Walmart is bringing the convenience of drone delivery to four million households, in partnership with DroneUp.
Walmart announced an expansion to its drone delivery program that will offer $3.99 deliver fees on shipments of 10 pounds or less.
Small drones will deliver up to 10 pounds of items to six states: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
Despite a nationwide slowdown in retail sales, Walmart announced Tuesday it is expanding its drone delivery program to 4 million customers in six states.
In a blog post on its website, the retail giant said the delivery program, in partnership with the drone company DroneUp, will reach 34 sites in six states by the end of the year: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Utah and Virginia. The goal is to reach 4 million U.S. households, delivering more than 1 million packages by drone annually.
“Between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., customers will be able to order from tens of thousands of eligible items, such as Tylenol, diapers and hot dog buns, for delivery by air in as little as 30 minutes,” Walmart said, adding that the drones can carry up to 10 pounds. There is a $3.99 delivery fee.
China christened a remarkable new 290-foot ship last week – the world’s first semi-autonomous drone carrier. It’ll carry, launch, recover and co-ordinate the actions of more than 50 other autonomous aerial, surface and underwater vehicles.
The Huangpu Wenchong Shipyard began construction on the Zhu Hai Yun last July in Guangzhou. According to the South China Morning Post, it’s the first carrier of its kind, a self-contained autonomous platform that will roll out with everything necessary to perform a fully integrated operation including drone aircraft, boats and submersibles.
China doesn’t expect it to navigate busy seaports by itself, like the Japanese autonomous container ship Suzaku we wrote about last week. Instead, the Zhu Hai Yun will run on remote control until it’s out in the open water, and then its self-driving systems will take over to execute whatever mission it’s running.
UK’s National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) is launching trials to fully automate the corrosion inspection of electricity transmission pylons with the help of autonomous drones.
NGET owns 21,900 steel lattice pylons that carry overhead transmission conductor wires in England and Wales. Transmission pylon steelwork conditions can deteriorate through corrosion, so periodic assessments are made to understand the health of the network. NGET inspects around 3,650 steel lattice pylons each year, capturing high definition still color images of steelwork using helicopters and manually-operated drones.