
Land Rover’s new Discovery search and rescue SUV has a roof-mounted drone - pythongirl
https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/07/land-rovers-new-discovery-search-and-rescue-suv-has-a-roof-mounted-drone/
======
anexprogrammer
Surprisingly the Daily Mail has a much more extensive write up of the vehicle
and drone [0], along with plenty of photos. Normally I'd avoid linking to the
Mail!

Jag's SVO group does some remarkable vehicles from the gorgeous F-Type Project
7, to bullet proof Range Rovers.

[0] [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4288250/Red-Cross-
he...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4288250/Red-Cross-heroes-Land-
Rover-rescue-drone.html)

------
AlexMuir
I'm sure there's a point in on the adoption graph of any technology which
should be labeled as "Used to generate PR buzz". Second Life, 3D printers,
etc. My gut feeling is that it comes just before the mass realization that
something isn't ever going to be mainstream.

------
mbrookes
Maybe I"m missing something, but what's the purpose of launching from a roof
box? It just seems like a gimmick. I can launch a multi-rotor from the roof of
my car, but that's hardly news-worthy.

Second, why a quad-copter? Anyone that knows anything about multirotors knows
that a quad-coptor has multiple single points of failure, where a hex or octo
can be controlled with single or multiple failures respectively.

Seems like they just slapped a hobby drone on the roof of a car "because
marketing". It doesn't deserve to be on HN.

~~~
chrisseaton
I think the idea is you can be driving around and launch and recover it
without leaving the vehicle. While one person is driving, another navigating,
another operating a radio, a fourth person can operate a drone without
interfering with any of them.

That seems useful to me. I guess it must be useful to the Red Cross as well
since they're using it. Do you have more experience in search and rescue than
they do?

> "because marketing"

Who are you quoting with these quotation marks? That's not why they say
they've done it. If it's your opinion don't make it look like you're quoting
someone else.

~~~
mbrookes
Your argument is weak, and clearly you recognise that, as the to appeals to
authority, and mistaken [1 8a] questioning of something as trivial as the use
of quotation marks are a poor attempt to distract from the question.

[1]
[http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/quotes.asp](http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/quotes.asp)

~~~
chrisseaton
No I didn't appeal to authority, I appealed to the fact that they had used the
tool and nobody in these comments had. That's concrete relevant experience in
the topic at hand, not just authority.

~~~
mbrookes
> I appealed to the fact that they had used the tool and nobody in these
> comments had.

So demonstrating that you didn't even read the article.

It's not due until June 2017 (how long does it take to fit a roofbox to a
car?!) and then then only for pretend use in a training facility.

It's also clear from the video that the GUI is an artists impression.

Like I said "because marketing".

------
kagamine
Another cool thing about Land Rovers and Jaguars is that the body panels are
built from ~50% recycled aluminium.

~~~
jacquesm
Why is that cool? Many cars are made from wholly or partially recycled raw
materials. The only thing that is hard to recycle is certain plastics but
future recycling is already part of the design phase of almost all vehicles.

This article:

[https://www.thebalance.com/auto-recycling-facts-and-
figures-...](https://www.thebalance.com/auto-recycling-facts-and-
figures-2877933)

has the percentage of recycled material in a car pegged at ~80%.

~~~
SeeDave
Not OP, but my understanding is that aluminum paneling is uncommon enough and
supposedly superior due to lighter weight than conventional steel paneling.
Perhaps the major draw is aluminum paneling, with the 50% recycled material a
nice extra?

~~~
jacquesm
That's reflected in the vehicle price, aluminum vehicles are substantially
more expensive (and more expensive to work on after an accident) than steel.

Aluminum is extremely well recyclable, pretty much everything you buy that is
made of aluminum will have a substantial portion of recycled material in it.

It's pure marketing to make it seem as though that's special somehow. The
whole idea of something like an SUV being somehow green is a nice example of
how 'green marketing' can be ridiculous.

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mauvehaus
"Magnets lock the drone in place while the Discovery is login, ...", "...
extending the Red Cross staff’s ability o cover terrain beyond ...", "...
partnership Land Rover has had with the Red Cross across the glob, ..."

I was going to go and post a link to Paul Graham's "Submarine" article[0], but
instead, I have to ask: What ever happened to editing? I know it's fashionable
to be first with the news these days whether you know the full story or not,
but this is just terrible. I'd be ashamed if it were my name on the article.

(Any typos in the above are a clever use of irony ;-) )

[0]
[http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html)

~~~
michaelmcdonald
Couldn't agree more. Did the author not even bother to run this through a
basic spell check? Even my browser will highlight words in a text-entry field
that are misspelled.

~~~
aninhumer
I don't think any of those examples would be caught by spellcheck. "login",
"o" and "glob" are all considered words by mine.

------
nfg
Maybe the car-periscope from "Curb Your Enthusiasm" was a billion dollar idea
after all.

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jlebrech
cars should have drones instead of dashcams in future

~~~
malikNF
Drones are nice and all, but using a drone as a dash-cam, that's going to be
expensive as hell since the drone would have to have a top speed equal to the
top speed of the vehicle. Weather conditions, powering the device, obstacle
detection.

~~~
chimprich
A drone with a camera that could be deployed when required rather than
permanently could be useful for parking manoeuvres, extra visibility when
overtaking, checking out why traffic has stopped, and so on.

~~~
frozenport
Would be better to have a stick with a camera. Or many sticks with cameras.

