Autonomous drone defeats human champions in racing first

Re:Autonomous drone defeats human champions in racing first by pjc50 on Thursday June 05, 2025 @06:19PM (#44196275)

A lot of money if you're a UK benefits recipient, not a lot of money for a piece of military equipment. Slightly more than the annual allowance of one asylum seeker.

Whole program is about a third of the cost of a Type 26 Frigate.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Autonomous drone defeats human champions in racing first by CommanderData on Friday June 06, 2025 @03:22AM (#44198557)

The asylum seeker comparison is interesting.

While I want to reduce the number, I can't but help think how we essentially create them in the first place by destroying the countries which create the economic conditions they flee from.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Autonomous drone defeats human champions in racing first by dash2 on Friday June 06, 2025 @09:29AM (#44200696)

Asylum seekers are not fleeing bad economic conditions, or at least they are claiming not to. Also, we didn't create refugees from Syria or Ukraine - Syria and Russia did.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Autonomous drone defeats human champions in racing first by CommanderData on Saturday June 07, 2025 @04:13AM (#44208218)

Not entirely, I think western powers had much more involvement then you have summarized.

Destabilising a country, causing military coups, arming rebel forces all play a part.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Autonomous drone defeats human champions in racing first by ponector on Thursday June 05, 2025 @07:19PM (#44196544)

Kamikaze FPV drones starts from $400 (without warhead), from $1000 if it has 20km of optic fiber or is an interceptor. If it is not a kamikaze, like heavy bomber or reconnaissance - $10k+.

Extremely affordable!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Autonomous drone defeats human champions in racing first by throwaway2037 on Friday June 06, 2025 @01:24AM (#44198017)

How much does 20km of optic fibre weigh? Why don't these fibre strands suffer from the same physical limits as cabling used in suspension bridges? To be clear: I am not doubting that multi-kilometer optic fibre controlled drones do not exist. There are plenty of highly quality news sources and YouTube videos about them.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Autonomous drone defeats human champions in racing first by IshKebab on Friday June 06, 2025 @02:20AM (#44198265)

Presumably they are lying on the ground.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Autonomous drone defeats human champions in racing first by vbezhenar on Friday June 06, 2025 @09:26AM (#44200667)

https://www.wildberries.ru/catalog/423372174/detail.aspx

Weight: 2.2 kg Price: 78 000 ₽ ($1000)

Just to clarify, this 20km fibre spool is installed on the drone itself and unwinds automatically as drone flies.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Autonomous drone defeats human champions in racing first by rhcom2 on Thursday June 05, 2025 @10:23PM (#44197294)

One Tu-22M is $100 million.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Autonomous drone defeats human champions in racing first by vbezhenar on Friday June 06, 2025 @09:24AM (#44200630)

It is priceless. It's not produced anymore. You can't exchange $100 million for new Tu-22M. Not exactly priceless, you probably can replicate the production by rebuilding the factories for every component and all related production chains. But that'll be much more than $100 million.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Autonomous drone defeats human champions in racing first by SergeAx on Sunday June 08, 2025 @07:15PM (#44220092)

Current price of a 155mm artillery shell (risen from $2k before 2023).

[ Parent | on HN ]