drones

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Future Car Accessory: A Drone?

Renault's concept car Kwid envisions 'flying companion'

(Newser) - A new Renault concept SUV comes with a buddy: a drone that soars out of a roof hatch to investigate traffic conditions or maybe off-roading hazards. Were the "flying companion," as the company calls it, to be produced, it would be about the size of a small bird,...

Farmer Is First American Jailed Thanks to a Drone
Farmer Is First American Jailed Thanks to a Drone
in case you missed it

Farmer Is First American Jailed Thanks to a Drone

North Dakota cops used Predator to help end farmer's standoff

(Newser) - Given how common it is for law-enforcement agencies to use drones these days, this milestone was only a matter of time: A North Dakota farmer has become the first American to be convicted and sentenced to prison with the help of a drone, reports US News & World Report . Rodney...

There's a Secret Provision in Congress' Spending Bill

It would kill Obama's plans to take the drone program out of CIA hands

(Newser) - Congress' $1.1 trillion spending bill contains a secret provision torpedoing President Obama's plans to pass the drone program from the CIA to the Pentagon. In a classified annex, the bill specifically prohibits any funds being used to facilitate such a transfer, the Washington Post reports. Obama wants to...

Agencies Borrowing Drones More Than We Thought

Customs and Border Protection has loaned them out almost 700 times

(Newser) - Domestic law enforcement agencies have flown a lot more drone missions than they let on, according to newly uncovered data. Customs and Border Patrol lent out drones from its fleet for almost 700 surveillance missions from 2010 to 2012, the agency has revealed, in response to Freedom of Information Act...

FAA Unveils 6 Drone Test Sites on American Soil

Alaska, Nevada, NY, ND, Texas, Virginia are the lucky winners

(Newser) - The Federal Aviation Administration announced six states today that will develop test sites for drones, a critical next step for the unmanned aircraft's march into US skies. The agency said Alaska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Texas, and Virginia will host research sites. Drones have been mainly used by...

What It&#39;s Like to Pilot a Drone

 What It's Like to Pilot a Drone 
OPINION

What It's Like to Pilot a Drone

Heather Linebaugh says she was always afraid she'd killed the wrong people

(Newser) - When politicians and military officials make the US and British drone programs sound like an expert, high-precision affair, Heather Linebaugh has the urge to ask some questions. Like: Why do they feel the need to deliver false , limited , or misleading statistics about civilian casualties? "How many women and children...

Colorado Town's Drone-Hunting Vote Grounded

Deer Trail waits for court opinion on Phillip Steel's effort

(Newser) - Phillip Steel has made a name for himself—through such outlets as the Colbert Report —with his call for hometown drone-hunting . Steel is behind an ordinance to allow the shooting-down of federal drones in Deer Trail, Colorado, home to 598 people. But the town won't vote on the...

Sleek New US Drone Flies Over Area 51
Sleek New Drone
Flies Over Area 51

Sleek New Drone Flies Over Area 51

The RQ-180 is designed to slip into 'contested environments'

(Newser) - The Air Force is testing a new stealth drone at Area 51 that's designed to penetrate "contested" areas—in other words, countries where the US is not at all welcome, Aviation Week reports. Dubbed the RQ-180, the unmanned Northrop Grumman plane is thought to have better stealth design...

3 Things That Could Ground Amazon Drones

For one thing, they can't find your door, writes David Axe

(Newser) - Jeff Bezos wants Amazon's "Prime Air"—in which drones would make deliveries to your door —to zip packages to buyers in as few as five years. But at Reuters , David Axe isn't so sure the drones will ever get off the ground. First, the project...

Amazon Unveils Delivery Drones

'Prime Air' could be just a few years away

(Newser) - No joke: Amazon has been working on delivery drones and CEO Jeff Bezos believes they could be zipping goods through the air to customers less than five years from now as part of its "Prime Air" service. The "Octocopter" unmanned aerial vehicles in development are capable of flying...

US: Sorry About Drone Strike That Killed Child

Top commander apologizes to Hamid Karzai

(Newser) - The top US commander in Afghanistan apologized to President Hamid Karzai for a drone strike that killed a child and NATO promised an investigation today as rising tensions threatened efforts to persuade the Afghan leader to sign a long-delayed security agreement. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford called Karzai late yesterday to...

Malfunctioning Drone Hits US Navy Ship

2 sailors burned in unexplained accident

(Newser) - A Navy guided missile cruiser hit by a malfunctioning drone during a training exercise on Saturday afternoon has returned to San Diego, where investigators will assess the damage and determine what went wrong. Two sailors were treated for minor burns after the USS Chancellorsville was struck by the unmanned aircraft...

Private Drones Could Fly Over US by 2015: FAA

But agency roadmap doesn't set out privacy rules

(Newser) - The FAA has unveiled a roadmap for introducing private drones operated by companies, universities, and even individual hobbyists to US skies by 2015—but the road might be a bumpy one. The agency, behind schedule on a deadline set by Congress, says it is working on very complicated regulations that...

Book: Obama Claimed to Be 'Really Good at Killing People'

And he's right: Michael Kelley

(Newser) - A new book on the 2012 election has President Obama making a rather brutal claim, particularly, as Michael Kelley notes at Business Insider , for a Nobel Peace laureate: The president said to aides that he's "really good at killing people." The quote comes from Double Down, by...

Only 5 Lawmakers Listen to Drone Survivors Testify

Story of grandmother's death brings translator to tears

(Newser) - The Congressional testimony of a Pakistani elementary school teacher and his children about the killing of his mother by a US drone brought the translator tasked with relaying their story to tears yesterday. The number of lawmakers who showed up to listen? Five, the Guardian reports. Rafiq ur Rehman told...

Drone Reportedly Kills Al-Shabab Bomb Expert

Attack shows US increasingly worried about Somali militants

(Newser) - A United States military strike hit a vehicle carrying senior members of an al-Qaida-linked militant group in Somalia today, killing at least two people. An al-Shabab member who gave his name as Abu Mohamed said one of those killed was al-Shabab's top explosives expert, known as Anta. He said...

Djibouti Kicks US Drones Out of Main Airport

Move follows several accidents, could hurt hunt for al-Shabab

(Newser) - It might have just gotten a little tougher for the US military to keep an eye on al-Shabab, the terrorist group behind the mall attack in Nairobi . The African nation of Djibouti has forced the US to remove a fleet of drones from a major military camp in the country,...

F-16 Takes Off— With No One Inside

Retired jets retrofitted into drones for Air Force training

(Newser) - Yesterday's fighter jets are today's drones. Or that's the hope of Boeing and the US Air Force, which have retrofitted retired F-16s to fly as unmanned aerial vehicles, the BBC reports. One of the six new pilot-less planes made the first test flight last week, with two...

New Use for Drones: Fixing Your Heart

Defikopter would drop defibrillators to heart attack victims

(Newser) - If all goes according to plan, a German nonprofit could soon be introducing a drone that doesn't spy on you—it could save your life. Definetz has proposed a drone, built by Height-Tech, that would carry a defibrillator, Fast Company reports. The 10-pound Defikopter would be meant for remote...

Al-Qaeda Engineers Take Aim at Drones: Secret File

No real success yet in quest to develop counterdrone strategy

(Newser) - Al-Qaeda has engineers, and those engineers have been handed a mission: Figure out how to mess with American drones. The Washington Post takes a look at the effort, noting right off the bat that there are thus far no indications that al-Qaeda has actually managed to take down or interfere...

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