Drones are everywhere. Traffic cameras don't care.
  • @[email protected]
    29•2 months ago

    An automated system keeps running, even when something it has no way of detecting is happening!? How unexpected!

    Now, if people still have to pay the tickets even after contesting them, that’s fucked up. But the fact that traffic cameras don’t suspend activity in the event of an airstrike doesn’t really strike me as news-worthy.

    • @RestrictedAccount
      18•2 months ago

      It strikes me as a little bit funny. I’m glad to have heard about it.

      • @QuarterSwede
        4•2 months ago

        I found it hilarious. I mean, they could turn the system off for now but no, they have to go to courts to fight the tickets, per the traffic police. That’s just bonkers.

    • @Etterra
      2•2 months ago

      One would expect a traffic ticket system to be able to selectively disable units remotely. After all they’re already connected to some kind of remote system in order for the tickets to be issued in the first place.

  • @[email protected]
    10•2 months ago

    That interesting bit about the M-38 highway being within Ukrainian FPV drone range.

    And unsaid but that must include the rail line that runs alongside the highway.

    Although that is likely from special ops teams for them to get that far.

    • @[email protected]
      5•2 months ago

      With good directional antennas, the correct frequencies and analog signals and maybe last-mile AI/image recognition, 30-50 miles should be easy. You could even use a high altitude drone as a signal repeater for even more range with minimal latency.

      For perspective: I could communicate with ham radio repeaters using a 5W transmitter and a basic whip antenna at about 150 miles, at 220/440mhz, because the repeater was in a high enough spot, on a distant mountain. Granted, that was only voice but it’s still a good representation of what kind of range you can get.

      Digital signals at higher frequencies wouldn’t have much of a chance.

      Edit: We are entering a period of high solar activity as well. While atmospheric bounce is usually reserved for other bands (usually 10m, or ~29mhz) it can absolutely be a thing with higher frequencies now.

      • @[email protected]English
        2•2 months ago

        I’ve been wondering about how practical it is to extend FPV drone range by also deploying them from larger vehicles.

        Like, remember that fixed-wing foamboard drone that Australia shipped some of to Ukraine a while back? Those are pretty expendable.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sypaq_Corvo_Precision_Payload_Delivery_System

        That thing can haul 6kg 80km.

        https://www.politico.eu/article/future-warfare-400-army-strike-drone-unit-2m-tank/

        A typical FPV weighs up to one kilogram, has four small engines, a battery, a frame and a camera connected wirelessly to goggles worn by a pilot operating it remotely. It can carry up to 2.5 kilograms of explosives and strike a target at a speed of up to 150 kilometers per hour, explains Pavlo Tsybenko, acting director of the Dronarium military academy outside Kyiv.

        So that’s up to 3.5kg.

        The FPV is more-maneuverable, cheaper, and faster than the PPDS.

        https://www.reuters.com/graphics/UKRAINE-CRISIS/DRONES/dwpkeyjwkpm/

        The FPV drones take off from improvised platforms several kilometres from the front line. Depending on their size, battery and payload, range varies from 5 km to 20 km or more.

        That’d be a substantial range increase.

        I don’t know what risks might be associated with having a non-one-use drone, though. Like, if you want to use the “carrier” drone multiple times, it might be possible for a reconnaissance drone to follow it back, wait for someone to retrieve the thing, and then drop artillery on the spot or something.

        Could also just expend the fixed-wing drone as a single-use weapon, though then it increases the cost of the drone by a factor of several times.

        • @[email protected]
          2•2 months ago

          I remember seeing some testing videos of Baba Yaga’s being used as launch platform for other drones and according to Wikipedia, it can function as a control repeater as well.

          But yeah, the concept is solid regardless of the “how”. If your carrier drone is only half way to the front (or just over) and used to launch kamikaze drones, the risk is probably minimal but probably more time consuming than anything else.