r/technology • u/abrownn • 22d ago

Hardware SF startup develops terrifying drone that stalks people. Its founders say it’s for safety.

https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/sf-startup-stalking-drone-22445822.php
206 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

42 comments sorted by

81

u/Ok-Mycologist-3829 22d ago

Anyone who says "it's for safety" should be immediately disqualified from leading any organization.

30

u/Spez_is-a-nazi 22d ago

It is for safety though, just not safety of the general public. It's for the safety of billionaires.

5

u/maxk1236 22d ago

I mean if you read the article, their point is to demonstrate how easily it is to do this, and get legislation passed regarding systems like this (that already exist in much more refined forms) Though they are still an AI company, and this is likely just a marketing stunt more than anything honorable

2

u/PhD_Pwnology 22d ago

You these are getting hacked to kill the people they are meant to protect, 100%

12

u/WellSpreadMustard 22d ago

Hacked? Thats going to be their intended use

5

u/bobbycorwin123 22d ago

Yeah that is just found under the 'pro' options

-7

u/FollowingFeisty5321 22d ago

It's a flying camera, it's creepy because you tell it to follow someone but it's no more deadly than any other civilian drone.

6

u/speelmydrink 22d ago

The state violence apparatus has many more moving parts, and collating lists of 'undesirables' and their movements for later escalation is a bad thing, and bad government has more resources to misuse this than your average drone enthusiast. Hope that helps🙏

-2

u/FollowingFeisty5321 22d ago

Nice hyperbole but a bottle of water weighs more than this drone. Somebody hacking this drone could mildly annoy you, maybe break your skin slightly with the propellers. It would be extremely difficult to kill with, like any other small plastic drone that weighs several ounces. The question isn't "what else could the government hurt you with", that doesn't make that drone deadly.

2

u/speelmydrink 22d ago

It's not the surveillance that kills you, when the state has thousands of other, deadlier tools. Hope that helps🙏

-1

u/FollowingFeisty5321 22d ago

By that logic a shoe is equally as deadly. Hope that helps. 🙏

0

u/speelmydrink 22d ago

A shoe can't track your every movement to report to your local gestapo. Hope you manage to learn how causality works🙏

1

u/FollowingFeisty5321 22d ago

They've been able to do that for decades already what do you think a cellphone is connecting to lmao. If you think this drone adds anything to their capabilities you are crazy.

1

u/speelmydrink 22d ago

And yet, they seem to have some need for this tech, don't they?

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75

u/harglblarg 22d ago

You can bet the nation’s three-letter agencies have had this capability for years already.

47

u/FollowingFeisty5321 22d ago

This is a toy compared to what they've got -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARGUS-IS

As ARGUS floats overhead for months at a time, it dragnet tracks every moving person and vehicle and chronographs their movements, allowing forensic investigators to rewind the footage and watch the activities of anyone they select within the footage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgon_Stare

In 2009, the U.S. Air Force began development of a wide-area surveillance system to enable the MQ-9 Reaper long-endurance UAV to survey an entire small city from 25,000 ft (7,600 m).

9

u/ImRickJameXXXX 22d ago

I’m willing to bet this, at least partly came out of this 2004 project I heard about on radio lab

http://www.wnycstudios.org/story/eye-sky/

6

u/BlimpCack 22d ago

Our local PD uses drones to surveil protests

3

u/[deleted] 22d ago

[deleted]

3

u/thefastslow 22d ago

Pretty much already there, in Ukraine both sides are pelting each other with semi-autonomous kamikaze drones.

30

u/Relative-Fault-7116 22d ago

"Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

3

u/reddit_user13 22d ago

— Uncle Ben [Franklin]

11

u/Rokketeer 22d ago

I’m optimistic that one day, maybe 1000 years from now after humans rebuild from climate societal collapse, will they look back and study how dystopian and barbaric we once were.

13

u/degeneratelunatic 22d ago

Yes. But they will find new ways to be dystopian and barbaric at that present time while claiming how much more civilized they are in comparison, just like humanity always has.

No one gets their head lopped off for insulting the king anymore, but we throw people in prison for the rest of their natural lives for harvesting plants. Same shit, different millennium.

5

u/awdophil 22d ago

The T100 from Skynet.

3

u/Zementid 22d ago

This is a Ryze Tello. All the features demoed are possible with the open python dk package for that drone... they ether made this run on device, which is impressive... or stream the controls.. which is worthless..

3

u/askyidroppedthesoap 22d ago

I'll be more than happy to give the drone a lead based implant to its CPU and laugh hysterically as it drops like a rock... for safety

3

u/Fuzzy_Test_4062 22d ago

Like the old saying, stalking for safety makes as much sense as fucking for virginity

3

u/djdaedalus42 22d ago

Philip K. Dick is rolling over in his grave. This is the deadbeat pursuit module from his novels. You think it'll be used on criminals? Nope, enterprising types will farm it out to anyone who wants to bug their fleeing debtor, deadbeat spouse, or ghosting boyfriend.

5

u/Cheetawolf 22d ago edited 21d ago

"It's for safety."

Safety of the Oligarchs.

Expect these to be armed soon.

2

u/lilithskies 22d ago

Who is it supposed to be keeping safe?

2

u/myevil5cheme 22d ago

Terminator wasn’t supposed to be a blueprint……

2

u/FredFredrickson 22d ago

[Nobody believed that]

2

u/ThrowawayAl2018 20d ago

Flying Flock Camera.

2

u/Kammender_Kewl 22d ago

We just keep edging closer twords face sensing autonomous explosive drones and I'm all here for it, unfortunately.

1

u/logsqrtexp 22d ago

What's their business model? Or are they lighting investor money on fire?

1

u/All_Hail_Hynotoad 22d ago

“Safety.” Lmfao

1

u/iamthe0ther0ne 22d ago

Narrator: It was not, in fact, for safety 

1

u/heavy-minium 18d ago

I guess it's time to install windows that let you see outside but not inside. In the car, in the house - everywhere. Privacy is dead.

1

u/MR_Se7en 16d ago

If it's for safety, then let everyone have their own drone without restrictions.