What Will We Watch As Drones Evolve?
Uses At Home
Shane Harris, journalist and author of The Watchers: The Rise of America's Surveillance State, tells Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon there are several potential near-term uses for drones. The Customs and Border Protection unit of Homeland Security, for example, is experimenting with drones the size of small birds for monitoring the border.
Harris says drones have also been used in natural disaster situations, including at the Fukushima plant after the earthquake in Japan. Drones the size of spiders could inspect houses during hostage situations. He says drones are also likely to be used in mass farming to replace crop dusters or even herd cattle — even traffic helicopters could also be replaced.
The technology could theoretically also fly jumbo jets, Harris says, allowing companies like UPS and FedEx to use drones instead of people to fly their planes.
"It could certainly be much more efficient. They could perhaps fly routes that human beings can't fly. They certainly don't have to take breaks the way that humans do," he says. "Then that sort of raises the question ... would we ever feel comfortable — we, people, getting on a Delta or American Airlines flight that didn't have a pilot in it?"
Drones Abroad
Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/07/30/138764202/what-will-we-watch-as-drones-evolve?ft=1&f=1003
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