
Draganfly and ‘pandemic drone’ pilot studies in the U.S. - colinprince
https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/30/draganfly-pandemic-drone-united-states-pilots/
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falcor84
"By April 23, the Westport pilot was dead" was a really poor choice of words.
It took me a few times to reread that paragraph and assure myself that it's
just the experimental rollout that was cancelled.

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foobarbecue
Me too! They could at least have said "pilot project. "

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Ididntdothis
This stuff makes me very nervous. Together with the contact tracing apps we'll
have total surveillance wherever we go.

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jszymborski
The key to this sort of thing is to make sure that the legal use of these
kinds of powers/tools by the gov't be extended by representatives at the
federal and local levels on a regular basis.

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antsar
That sounds great. How do we "make sure"?

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jszymborski
It depends on the country, but the gist in Western democracies is usually
"make it law" so that it can be enforced by the courts. It's why I took care
to say "legal" use, as there'll always be abuses. The legal system just gives
a chance (not a guarantee) of accountability.

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grawprog
That's gone so well in recent decades. Maybe they can use the patriot act as a
model. That's only ever been used for its intended purposes and any rights
violations that have occured under it have always been justly defended in
courts.

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jszymborski
The USA PATRIOT acts 4-year term was far too long, and the US senate voted to
extend it after that lapsed.

What you're taking issue with is your representation, not abuse by the
executive branch or some shadow gov't.

All I've said here is elect and advocate for programmes like this Draganfly to
have very small windows, and require extension by elected officials. I don't
think this is something you or grandparent comment are opposed to, is it?

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grawprog
I'll agree if they must exist that would be arguably the least evil of said
options, but you'd have to convince me that mass surveillance using flying
machines, in the name of 'public safety' is a thing i should be positive about
in general first.

As it is, my attitude towards military and police drones is fairly cold. This
might as well be some horrible dystopian sci-fi shit as far as i'm concerned.

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laptq10
"The Vital Intelligence Project can help estimate the distances between
people, but it can also monitor temperatures, heart rates, and respiratory
rates of individuals in crowds and workforces."

So essentially, these are cattle helicopters for humans.

The amount of outright assholes in the "tech" industry is alarming.

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Ididntdothis
I remember the movie and book “1984” where people were constantly monitored by
all available means, and voila, we are rapidly getting there. Having
helicopters and drones watching everything we do is seriously creepy and us
tech people are happily supporting it.

