Fascinating. I have to agree with the protesters: that drone noise would be bloody annoying if it was flying past your house all the time. I didn't like the Alphabet spokesman's explanation that...
Fascinating.
I have to agree with the protesters: that drone noise would be bloody annoying if it was flying past your house all the time. I didn't like the Alphabet spokesman's explanation that this is just a sound that humans aren't used to yet. It's not a sound we should have to get used to.
Difficult to get a sense of exactly how loud these things are through a video, but the noise they generated was in an incredibly irritating pitch, which is probably an issue that's going to be...
Difficult to get a sense of exactly how loud these things are through a video, but the noise they generated was in an incredibly irritating pitch, which is probably an issue that's going to be faced by any craft based around propellers this small. I'm a little irritated that they didn't go into detail on the noise reduction fixes, which leads me to think that they're not all that impactful, more something that's being done so that they can tell lawmakers that they're working on a solution.
Makes me wonder what other, quieter options are available for drone propulsion. Ion engine powered drones would have impractically low thrust for cargo delivery. Lighter than air drones are surprisingly feasible, one with a 2m balloon would be able to carry about 25kg of cargo, but you'd still need propellers and you'd have to contend with wind in a much bigger way than in heavier than air drones. Whoops, that's radius, I was thinking diameter. Guess lighter than air is a non-starter too. I wonder how well an ornithopter would work.
Exactly. It's almost as if the drones were purposefully designed to operate at the most annoying pitch possible. (I know they weren't.) And that noise seems to carry quite well - it was picked up...
the noise they generated was in an incredibly irritating pitch,
Exactly. It's almost as if the drones were purposefully designed to operate at the most annoying pitch possible. (I know they weren't.) And that noise seems to carry quite well - it was picked up very clearly by microphones, which I'm assuming have a lower-grade recording ability than human ears.
they didn't go into detail on the noise reduction fixes, which leads me to think that they're not all that impactful, more something that's being done so that they can tell lawmakers that they're working on a solution.
My thought was that their noise reduction attempts haven't been very successful yet, so they don't want to expose their early failure in this area. They want to wait until they have something successful to display.
They also raise some very legitimate concerns about privacy, etc. The noise problem can probably be solved by refining the engineering, but the privacy needs some strong regulation from the get go...
They also raise some very legitimate concerns about privacy, etc. The noise problem can probably be solved by refining the engineering, but the privacy needs some strong regulation from the get go about what's allowed to be used within range of residential homes and under what circumstances.
On another, totally unrelated, note: the narrator's American accent was more noticeable than usual because this is a story about Australia, and with Australians in it. I have to commend him on not...
On another, totally unrelated, note: the narrator's American accent was more noticeable than usual because this is a story about Australia, and with Australians in it. I have to commend him on not stuffing up the pronunciation of "Canberra", as so many Americans do. However, he absolutely butchered "Bonython" - which should not be pronounced "bon-eye-a-then", but "bonny-thon".
Fascinating.
I have to agree with the protesters: that drone noise would be bloody annoying if it was flying past your house all the time. I didn't like the Alphabet spokesman's explanation that this is just a sound that humans aren't used to yet. It's not a sound we should have to get used to.
Difficult to get a sense of exactly how loud these things are through a video, but the noise they generated was in an incredibly irritating pitch, which is probably an issue that's going to be faced by any craft based around propellers this small. I'm a little irritated that they didn't go into detail on the noise reduction fixes, which leads me to think that they're not all that impactful, more something that's being done so that they can tell lawmakers that they're working on a solution.
Makes me wonder what other, quieter options are available for drone propulsion. Ion engine powered drones would have impractically low thrust for cargo delivery.
Lighter than air drones are surprisingly feasible, one with a 2m balloon would be able to carry about 25kg of cargo, but you'd still need propellers and you'd have to contend with wind in a much bigger way than in heavier than air drones.Whoops, that's radius, I was thinking diameter. Guess lighter than air is a non-starter too. I wonder how well an ornithopter would work.Exactly. It's almost as if the drones were purposefully designed to operate at the most annoying pitch possible. (I know they weren't.) And that noise seems to carry quite well - it was picked up very clearly by microphones, which I'm assuming have a lower-grade recording ability than human ears.
My thought was that their noise reduction attempts haven't been very successful yet, so they don't want to expose their early failure in this area. They want to wait until they have something successful to display.
They also raise some very legitimate concerns about privacy, etc. The noise problem can probably be solved by refining the engineering, but the privacy needs some strong regulation from the get go about what's allowed to be used within range of residential homes and under what circumstances.
On another, totally unrelated, note: the narrator's American accent was more noticeable than usual because this is a story about Australia, and with Australians in it. I have to commend him on not stuffing up the pronunciation of "Canberra", as so many Americans do. However, he absolutely butchered "Bonython" - which should not be pronounced "bon-eye-a-then", but "bonny-thon".