Tag Archives: drones

The Tampa Bay Times reports: Chick-fil-A is starting to deliver food by drone in the Tampa Bay area — so far only from one location within Hillsborough County. A Brandon-Valrico Chick-fil-A restaurant announced Monday on Facebook that it now has drone delivery service to locations within a 1.2-mile radius. The drone delivery fee is free for a limited time, according …

Via press release from Walmart: As of Dec. 15, 2022, Walmart drone delivery is available in select markets in Texas, Arizona and Florida. Many customers in the Tampa, Orlando, Phoenix and Dallas areas can take advantage of same-day delivery via drone. We continue to expand our delivery operations to help customers get the items they need when they need them, …

Axios reports: Increasingly sophisticated drone show technology — which enables massive swarms of tiny lit-up drones to fly in sync with one another displaying well-known logos, characters and so on — is pushing “skyvertising” to new heights. The company behind popular mobile game Candy Crush recently launched 500 drones from New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from downtown Manhattan, …

The Associated Press reports: Axon, the company best known for developing the Taser, said Monday it was halting plans to develop a Taser-equipped drone after a majority of its ethics board resigned over the controversial project. Axon’s founder and CEO Rick Smith said the company’s announcement last week — which drew a rebuke from its artificial intelligence ethics board — …

Axios reports: Walmart customers in six states will soon be able to have their orders delivered by drone in less than 30 minutes. This will be the first large-scale drone delivery operation in the United States. So far, drone deliveries have been available only in a few small towns, with customers selecting from a short list of items. Walmart’s DroneUp …

The Intercept reports: Brinc, a rising star among the many companies jockeying to sell drones to police, has a compelling founding mythology: In the wake of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, its young founder decided to aid law enforcement agencies through the use of nonviolent robots. A company promotional video obtained by The Intercept, however, reveals a different vision: …

CNN reports: A drone that crashed near a Pennsylvania power substation last year was likely meant to damage or disrupt the electric equipment, according to a federal law enforcement bulletin obtained by CNN. The July 2020 incident is the first known case of a “modified unmanned aircraft system likely being used in the United States to specifically target energy infrastructure,” …

The Verge reports: “I’d be more worried about the camera on your phone than I would be about a drone,” Amazon devices SVP Dave Limp told me in an interview a few hours after yesterday’s big Echo event. The drone in question is the Ring Always Home Cam, an autonomous indoor drone that can use a map of your home …

The New York Post reports: Chinese authorities are taking coronavirus surveillance to new heights — using drones to scold citizens who go outside without face masks. “Yes, auntie, this is the drone speaking to you. You shouldn’t walk about without wearing a mask,” says the caption of a video posted Friday on Twitter by the Global Times, the English-language newspaper …

The Associated Press reports: The sky above the stadium that will host Sunday’s Super Bowl is being “inundated” with an alarming number of drones, raising the specter of injuries to tourists or others — or a possible collision with aircraft, the FBI said Friday. That’s despite an ongoing restriction that bans the use of drones in the area of Mercedes-Benz …

Bloomberg reports: The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily halted flights at Newark Liberty International Airport after a drone sighting. The civilian aircraft was spotted north of the New Jersey hub at an altitude of 3,500 feet, FAA spokesman Greg Martin said Tuesday. The U.S. government last week unveiled a long-awaited set of proposals to dramatically expand civilian drone flights while also …

The BBC reports: Departures at Heathrow have been stopped after a drone was sighted, the airport says. A Heathrow spokeswoman said the airport was working with police to “prevent any threat to operational safety”. She said: “As a precautionary measure, we have stopped departures while we investigate. We apologise to passengers for any inconvenience this may cause.” It comes after …

USA Today reports: A 47-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman have been arrested in connection with the “criminal use of drones” that forced the shutdown of London’s Gatwick international airport for several days, affecting 140,000 holiday travelers. Police said the pair were from the small town of Crawley, near Gatwick. No one had claimed responsibility for the bizarre incidents that …

The BBC reports: A drone attack at one of the UK’s busiest airports has left tens of thousands of passengers facing major disruption. Gatwick’s runway has been shut since Wednesday night, when two devices were seen flying over the perimeter fence. The airport said a drone had been spotted “in the last hour” and the runway would not open “until …

An excerpt from the new book by WaPo’s Greg Miller: When told that the CIA flew surveillance flights over Syria but that only the military conducted strikes — an Obama policy meant to return the agency’s focus to its core espionage mission — Trump made clear he wanted those restrictions wiped away and for the agency to start firing. “If …

The Associated Press reports: Connecticut lawmakers are considering whether the state should become the first in the country to allow police to use drones outfitted with deadly weapons. The proposal was immediately met with concern by civil rights and liberties advocates. The state legislature’s Judiciary Committee approved the bill Wednesday and sent it to the House of Representatives. It would …

And thus it was foretold that the Holy Word would rain from the heavens in tiny electronic form. The Washington Post reports: The apparent logic of the Swedish church Livets Ord, or “Word of Life,” is that by using a tactic that simulates the airstrikes that have traumatized a region, they will bring light and love and maybe convert some …

From the New York Daily News: Dramatic drone footage has captured California homes on the brink of collapse at the edge of a cliff. Powerful weather caused by El Niño has eroded the land and left several in Pacifica buildings teetering over oblivion. The city declared a state of emergency last weekend partly due to accelerated erosion of the cliffs, …

Via ABC News: Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary issued the following statement Monday morning: “On 1/26/15, at approximately 3:08 a.m., a Secret Service Uniformed Division officer posted on the South Grounds of the White House complex heard and observed a ‘quad copter’ device, approximately two feet in diameter, flying at a very low altitude and ultimately crashing on the southeast …

Via the New York Daily News: Bronx-based photographer Victor Chu spent the last six months on an ambitious project: documenting landmarks in all five boroughs of New York City with a camera and aerial drone. His recently completed short video, made from 10 hours of tape shot over the past six months, is Chu’s tribute to the city where he’s …