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Countries across the continent are experimenting with this 21st century technology as a way to leapfrog decades of neglect of 20th century infrastructure.
Over the last two years, San Francisco-based startup Zipline launched a national UAV delivery program in East Africa; South Africa passed commercial drone legislation to train and license pilots; and Malawi even opened a Drone Test Corridor to African and its global partners.
In Rwanda, the country's government became one of the first adopters of performance-based regulations for all drones earlier this year. The country's progressive UAV programs drew special attention from the White House and two U.S. Secretaries of Transportation.
[...] After several test rounds, Zipline went live with the program in October, becoming the world's first national drone delivery program at scale.
"We've since completed over 6000 deliveries and logged 500,000 flight kilometers," Zipline co-founder Keenan Wyrobek told TechCrunch. "We're planning to go live in Tanzania soon and talking to some other African countries."
[...] In a non-delivery commercial use case, South Africa's Rocketmine has built out a UAV survey business in 5 countries. The company looks to book $2 million in revenue in 2018 for its "aerial data solutions" services in mining, agriculture, forestry, and civil engineering.
[...] The continent's test programs — and Rwanda's performance-based drone regulations in particular — could advance beyond visual line of sight UAV technology at a quicker pace. This could set the stage for faster development of automated drone fleets for remote internet access, commercial and medical delivery, and even give Africa a lead in testing flying autonomous taxis.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 24 2018, @02:15PM (8 children)
Every single educated person in the entire world has already seen this episode before! The first season was way better - when the infrastructure now crumbling was being built by those devils - hospitals, schools, teaching them trade languages, skills, the best in technology...it really was an original story! Now it's all filler and the same old plot every time. Throw money into the black hole, and it's as if it never existed...."But wait! Let's try a slightly different mix of money and technology this time!" This show needs to be canceled.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday September 24 2018, @02:24PM (7 children)
Oh FFS, just say what you actually mean already. You're not fooling anyone.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday September 24 2018, @03:52PM
Is he talking about Gilligan's Island?, cos i dunno. Unless he wants to talk about MaryAnne, i'm outta here.
:)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 24 2018, @04:01PM (1 child)
I guess he means it's a "quantum leap" when you speak of America but a "frog leap" when it comes to nations in Africa.
Not that the neglect makes something more [mercurynews.com] than a simple linguistic artifice (with the note the freezing winter states show much worse).
One wonders just where's that trumpeted "infrastructure spending" stopped? Has it even hatched yet?
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday September 24 2018, @04:39PM
Was how bad our roads are.
In Canada, the roads are very well maintained.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 24 2018, @09:18PM (3 children)
He said what he meant, and I agree. People who advocate aid for Africa should be summarily executed for all the fucking crimes they have already committed with their "aid."
Africans should live in mud huts, and hunt (or be hunted by) various animals. Whatever fucking population that life-style supports, let it be, and leave it the fuck alone.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Monday September 24 2018, @11:03PM (2 children)
Translation: this is how Africa will speak Mandarin not English in a couple of decades.
But yes, I concede your point: if you are not able to do good, better do nothing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 25 2018, @10:43AM (1 child)
I don't think so. Speaking Mandarin is not so tough, but the characters form a barrier for many people. Of all the languages spoken in Africa most of them are written with alphabets. They haven't used logograms since ancient Egypt.
They'll probably all speak English with each other, even if the English-speaking countries vanish tomorrow. Lingua francas seem to persist long after the societies that spawn them have gone. Akkadian, the lingua franca of the ancient Middle East, stuck around for a couple thousand years after Akkad was gone. Latin, likewise, has stuck around for a long time since the Roman Empire fell.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @11:34AM
(what a way to miss the implied point)