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posted by chromas on Monday September 24 2018, @01:44PM   Printer-friendly

Submitted via IRC for Fnord666

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.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/16/african-experiments-with-drone-technologies-could-leapfrog-decades-of-infrastructure-neglect/


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 25 2018, @02:13PM (5 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 25 2018, @02:13PM (#739675) Journal

    The "flavor" of your post seems like you have to convince me that communism is worse than capitalism. If that be the case, you're wasting your time. I'm not holding the Soviet, or Red China up as an example we should follow, after all. Both countries had casualties in the tens of millions, while the commies were doing their thing in the capitals.

    Instead, I'm pointing out that we don't attain the moral high ground by default. We're screwed up enough, all on our own, that moral people can, and do, mock us for trying to pretend that we are "good", or "righteous", or whatever it is.

    Kinda like the petty criminal doing his first year in prison, comparing himself to the bad boys who will probably never see the light of day, except through bars. "Well, at least I'm better than THAT GUY!! I've never done ________________." Yes, that's us, the US. "We aren't as bad as the Soviet! We don't bury tens of millions in mass graves!"

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday September 25 2018, @08:12PM (1 child)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Tuesday September 25 2018, @08:12PM (#739849)

    Geez Runaway. I have been trying to make this point in several posts, but haven't been able to get my point across half as well as this post.

    Well done.

    I wouldn't like for you to think I have any beef with the US people at all.

    My home town hosted ~ 500,000 US Marines during the 1940's and I will forever be grateful to them for the awful job they took on in the Pacific War. My Grandmother told me many stories about what lovely young men they were, and how the town grieved when units came back from the fighting with half their boys missing. That was a just war if ever there was one.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday September 26 2018, @12:07AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 26 2018, @12:07AM (#739947) Journal

      I wouldn't like for you to think I have any beef with the US people at all.

      And yet, what was the point of this exercise? A litany of the evils of the US in a supposed comparison with Russia which neglects to mention what Russia has done and currently does. I don't mind acknowledging the evils of the US. But when it's done as if the US is the only evil out there, I have to wonder what is up?

  • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by khallow on Wednesday September 26 2018, @12:03AM (2 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 26 2018, @12:03AM (#739946) Journal
    And yet you wrote:

    Actually, the USA. If you're looking at numbers alone, Russia and the US are competitive. But, the US seems to install harsher, more draconian dictators than Russia does. Compare the Shah of Iran with someone like Fidel Castro. The US loves to add insult to injury.

    That struck me as indicating that you didn't understand how bad Communism was. Fidel and the Shah were far from the worst either had to offer and I was able to bring more worthy contenders to the table. Moving on:

    Instead, I'm pointing out that we don't attain the moral high ground by default. We're screwed up enough, all on our own, that moral people can, and do, mock us for trying to pretend that we are "good", or "righteous", or whatever it is.

    That's fine as far as it goes. But it's a double standard to pay attention to the moral flaws of the US and not other countries with similar capabilities (EU, Russia, and China at present), particularly while using the pretense of a comparison which is not a comparison. And as I noted, while the US frequently and routinely acted evil, it wasn't in the same class as its foes.

    We still have similar dilemmas today such as what to do about radical Islam. I don't buy, for example, that Russia's choice of supporting Assad over ISIS was a good idea, particularly since Assad's incompetence and the subsequent civil war was instrumental to the formation of ISIS in the first place. That strikes me as just another Operation Ajax moment (or rather the continuation of a previous Ajax moment by the Soviets). But then I don't buy that Islamic cooties are as dangerous as claimed. Communism had proven it was a danger by oppressing a third of humanity starting from little (as well as a remarkable history of dishonesty and violence unmatched in the corporate world). OTOH, Islam has been kicking around for almost 1400 years and hasn't really changed or grown much in recent centuries. My view is that the Moslem world is just a couple of centuries behind in social progress. Not great, but not an insolvable problem either.

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday September 26 2018, @12:40AM (1 child)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 26 2018, @12:40AM (#739961) Journal

      Double standard? No, not at all. Let's say you're a cop. No matter how dirty the suspects you arrest, then testify against, you are still responsible for your own actions, morals, and ethics. You might be a clean cop, never taking any bribe money, always honest, just as clean as clean can be. Or, you might be a dirty cop, justifying lying in court with getting a really bad guy off the street. Or, you might accept bribes, drugs, women, wine, and song, to look the other way. But, no matter how dirty you might be, you can't justify it with the trash that flows through your jail.

      I expect cops to be clean.

      And, I expect my country to do what is morally and ethically right.

      Unfortunately, neither the cops nor my country always measure up to my expectations.

      And, no, you can't justify any of it. The best you can offer is "might makes right". Yeah, we've got the guns to enforce our will, but that only makes us dirty. Please don't dirty us any further with a bunch of hypocritical justifications, based on whataboutisms.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday September 26 2018, @04:23AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 26 2018, @04:23AM (#740029) Journal

        But, no matter how dirty you might be, you can't justify it with the trash that flows through your jail.

        Ultimately, either something is done about that trash or they become the new police with a different take on what they can justify. A world where the good guys are required to commit suicide for the sake of ethics is not a viable one.

        And, no, you can't justify any of it. The best you can offer is "might makes right".

        That's where we're heading with this argument. If your "police", crooked or not, isn't willing to do the job of defending the weak, it's might makes right.

        As to what I can justify, you're looking at two basic choices with something like Communism (and any similar domination ideology like some flavors of Islam), submission or fighting back. The US choose to fight back. That we're still alive (large scale nuclear war being one of many possible bad outcomes) and mostly free (1984 being another) means they did a lot of things right.