Cheaper Drones Means More Drone Racing and Hoverbikes, or I’m Going to Sue Everyone

by
January 20, 2015

The BBC had a drone article recently that surveyed both the history and potential uses for drones, as well as examined their rapidly decreasing cost and increasing quality. This furthers the idea Michael Tunney presented on these pages — the idea of Battle Bots 2.0. And what I’m saying is that the world is ready for drone sport. As costs decrease, there is increasingly fewer reasons to not jump into this exciting world of drones doing athletic things for us.

Behold, France has already turned the corner and is zipping down the next hedgerow:

First of all: What a much of mega nerds. Secondly: How awesome is that?! Recreating one of the better chase scenes in movie history as a drone race? The view these pilots get looks nothing less than an absolute thrill adventure.

What better way to combine the exciting new technologies of our era — virtual reality and drones? Well, here’s another way we could take it up a notch:

You Aren't a FanGraphs Member
It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.
We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.
2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.
9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.

There are two things here: a) Those hoverbike drones plus that French drone course equals a world-changing racing event of unparalleled awesomeness. And then b) that same device, maybe made life-size, makes for an awesome actual recreation of the forest chase scene from Return of the Jedi.

Or maybe just hoverbike races on standard race course? Or all-terrain hoverbike races? THE POSSIBILITIES!

  1. Games could be broadcast live on sites like Twitch or even YouTube.
  2. As the sport grows, goggles that show the stationary view of the mounted camera can be replaced with integrated VR-camera technology, so that whenever a driver’s head moves, the camera moves with him.
  3. Or better yet! Maybe the multi-camera technology involved in Google’s Street View cars becomes small enough that all views are broadcast simultaneously. The driver wants to keep his eyes forward? Fine. Joe Blurpington of Constance, Iowa, wants to watch the rear as drones chase the leading vehicle? He can do that too!

What I’m saying is: This will be awesome, or I will throw an earth-shattering tantrum.





 

@BradleyWoodrum

2 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
mustbunique
10 years ago

I am in, and would go watch the crap out of one of these races live. Are you selling tickets BW? Demand. Fist over fist of demand. I’m guessing aspiring jockeys would be a fantastic test pilot pool?

0
Jacob, errr, Mr. Observant
10 years ago

Mr. Woodrum, although state laws prohibit me from guaranteeing you a big cash settlement, just between you and me, I’m guaranteeing you a BIG CASH SETTLEMENT.

0