
Ask HN: In 10 years, what new services will drones allow for? - mikemajzoub
Assumption: Within 10 years, getting a physical good from Person A to Person B will be fully automated, and thus, dirt cheap.<p>How will this change the way we live our lives? What new services can arise within this new reality?
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floppydisk
* Mobile Wi-Fi extender. Bridges to your existing network and gives you a portable connection to your home network thereby extending your range so long as your drone is able to communicate with the base station. Portable network extender that moves with you rather than requiring fixed infrastructure.

* Mapping - Drones will fly and map roads, pipelines, electrical grids and update the data faster and more regularly than now. Will also replace Google Streetview with drone view.

* Drones will be tethered to cars and provide alerts about traffic conditions ahead and on side roads in near real-time. Intrepid individuals will hack them to alert them to speed traps and other "hazards" ahead.

* Mobile response forces for municipalities. They will be sent to investigate things like water leaks, power outages, outdoor smoke, etc. to ascertain severity and determine what, if any, response is required. I.E. someone calls in about a power outage and a drone goes zipping along the power line to figure out if trees are down or whether a transformer blew to reduce the response time.

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BorisMelnik
fun question, these came to mind:

police / law enforcement - instead of sending out a chopper or team of 5
patrol cars on a high speed chase, they can send out a drone with spotlight to
follow the perpetrator around until he or she is apprehended.

looking for meth / cocaine labs in Mexico, columbia etc.

Already happening, but aerial photography will move completely away from
helicopters to drones.

Emergency medical supply (tech supply, food/water) delivery "in the field."

Census / city calculations.

Looking for potential gold / mineral deposits in remote locations. Drones
would be sent out, collect soil sample and retrieved.

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sharemywin
Assuming Augmented Reality has 3d scanning: you could look at any object and
have a drone deliver a 3d replica of it.

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LarryMade2
News drones - Reporters stay in the building and the drones cover the story
on-scene - outdoor items.

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heldrida
Definitely used as a human transport!

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sharemywin
a cluster of them could carry larger objects. if they were shaped like
cubes(or some other geometric shape) they might use electromagnets to attach.
maybe have a battery cube. storage cube. maybe wing or arm attachments that
assemble for longer range flight.

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mrits
mobile vending machines. some of them solicit you at your home

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sharemywin
pretty interesting from the perspective of neighborhood watch.

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sharemywin
drones plus non-lethal weapons?

why store anything at your house if it can store it in a warehouse and bring
it to you when you need it?

if it had arms you would have very interesting tele-presence.

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sharemywin
put a 15-20 ft flight of steps anywhere and maybe a drone comes and picks you
up.

