Now THIS is pod racing!

February 25, 2015 8:29 AM

It's 2015, so first-person-view quadcopter racing is a sport now.

The drone jockeys of tomorrow trade tips, photos, and videos on FPVlab and reddit.
Some more videos here.

posted by theodolite (22 comments total)

so this would be like the F1 (or perhaps World Rally) analog, which is great. But the NASCAR one that they would do out in an open field with maybe a telephone pole or two at either end -- well that would be as boring as NASCAR.
posted by philip-random at 8:45 AM on February 25, 2015

Fun, and to think that the powers that be (The FAA in the USA) want to suppress the creative expression that these toys can release.

The reason is that these very toys can be used to give the citizenry the ability to see what the police (state) is doing. All forms of government fear surveillance. It is not a privacy issue as the government would like to phrase the discussion. But rather the rules are being written to suppress FPV's form aiding in the surveillance of the government state by the citizenry. The police do not like to be watched as they gun down the citizenry!

It is sad that the in the great USA the government (state and local authorities) fear these fun toys!
posted by Mag Plug at 8:50 AM on February 25, 2015

What they need to do is make it so that instead of just having the standard remote controls, they rig one of those sit-down arcade booths for flight simulators that have big screens, a joystick and gyroscopic motors that will tilt in response to directional controls. Then you're basically flying the drone like a jet/speeder bike instead of a toy.
posted by picea at 8:57 AM on February 25, 2015 [8 favorites]

Picea, I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
posted by digitalprimate at 9:11 AM on February 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

okay so the future is actually really cool sometimes.

if that's how trippy the go-pro version is, I can't wait for the HD neural linkup.
posted by MetropolisOfMentalLife at 9:19 AM on February 25, 2015

But the NASCAR one that they would do out in an open field with maybe a telephone pole or two at either end -- well that would be as boring as NASCAR.

That would be pylon racing, and it's not boring at all. It is, however, really loud and finding a pylon that wouldn't insta-kill the pilot was a challenge finally solved by the Red Bull Air Race World Championship.
posted by eriko at 9:21 AM on February 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

It's a nice dream, but I think these aircraft bank much too quickly for a good sit-down simulator. If they rigged you up to a motion-based simulator for these aircraft, and it moved aggressively enough to match the accelerations with the visuals, your head would fly off. And if it didn't match the accelerations, then you would be projectile vomiting within 30 seconds.
posted by Ella Fynoe at 9:25 AM on February 25, 2015

Then you're basically flying the drone like a jet/speeder bike instead of a toy.

This would be fun, but the problem is that these multirotor craft are very, very light, and can pitch and roll Extremely Quickly. You'd be getting tossed around pretty well, and with a very strong motors.
posted by hellphish at 9:25 AM on February 25, 2015

not shown: the futility of bringing VTOL to a fixed-wing aircraft race.

I am digging the Return of the Jedi vibe, though.
posted by indubitable at 9:27 AM on February 25, 2015

Needs more Ewoks.
posted by vverse23 at 9:59 AM on February 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

The reason is that these very toys can be used to give the citizenry the ability to see what the police (state) is doing. All forms of government fear surveillance. It is not a privacy issue as the government would like to phrase the discussion.

Perhaps, but it's also the case that people will be using these things to spy on their neighbor's hot 16-year-old daughter taking a shower or tanning topless in the back yard. I mean, on the whole I agree with you that there's something of a knee-jerk response to the advent of cheap and easy-to-use drones underway, but don't pretend that there aren't obvious abuses of the technology which have nothing to do with exposing governmental malpractice.
posted by yoink at 10:30 AM on February 25, 2015 [5 favorites]

Wow! It's more Speeder Bike chase than Pod Race, though, isn't it?
posted by Stig at 10:38 AM on February 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

if that's how trippy the go-pro version is, I can't wait for the HD neural linkup

Note that the video in the link is recorded from Mobius ActionCams (Go Pro equivalents, it looks like), but the video the racers are seeing through their FPV goggles while racing is much lower quality, from (what the video says are) Boscam 5.8 GHz FPV systems: Standard definition (well, 480 lines) of analog video with interference from trees & leaves (and maybe RFI). It's hard to find examples of the live video online, but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akn3w0hn3RQ&t=3m0s has some stills.
posted by jjwiseman at 10:43 AM on February 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

Perhaps, but it's also the case that people will be using these things to spy on their neighbor's hot 16-year-old daughter taking a shower or tanning topless in the back yard. I mean, on the whole I agree with you that there's something of a knee-jerk response to the advent of cheap and easy-to-use drones underway, but don't pretend that there aren't obvious abuses of the technology which have nothing to do with exposing governmental malpractice.

Exactly! Which is why all forms of personal photography should be banned. In fact, did you know that citizens can own and operate hand-held cameras that can take zoom photography from hundreds of meters away completely silently? Where will the madness stop?

Snark aside, I mean come on. These things are not exactly quiet, and certainly don't represent any sort of "perv show superpower."
posted by Imperfect at 11:04 AM on February 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

Perhaps, but it's also the case that people will be using these things to spy on their neighbor's hot 16-year-old daughter taking a shower or tanning topless in the back yard. I mean, on the whole I agree with you that there's something of a knee-jerk response to the advent of cheap and easy-to-use drones underway, but don't pretend that there aren't obvious abuses of the technology which have nothing to do with exposing governmental malpractice.

Exactly! Which is why all forms of personal photography should be banned. In fact, did you know that citizens can own and operate hand-held cameras that can take zoom photography from hundreds of meters away completely silently? Where will the madness stop?

Aside from your snark, there's also the concern over safety; at least in populated areas having quadcopters crash into each other and fall out of the sky is a thing we want to avoid. Similarly, keeping them out of controlled airspace is probably a good idea. If the FAA makes heavyhanded rules I'll be right with you in decrying them, but I don't think there's strong evidence of that at all; I'm not aware of concrete rulemaking proposals that have come forward.
posted by thegears at 11:58 AM on February 25, 2015

All forms of government fear surveillance.

Eh. 90% of it is just institutional bias against the new and disruptive. The FAA isn't regulatorily captured by the cops -- it's by the airline industry, and they hate things that might annoy pilots or cause planes to crash.
posted by dhartung at 12:09 PM on February 25, 2015

thegears, less than two weeks ago the FAA published their new proposed small UAV rules ("Small UAS Notice of Proposed Rulemaking"). There are analyses and summaries all over the net; here's the FAA's own summary.

Basically, the proposed rules are mostly less restrictive than people hoping to use drones for business & research feared, but do contain two big restrictions that a lot of people (Amazon for sure, probably Google) are unhappy with: No beyond-line-of-sight operation, and no autonomous operation. Those rules will limit some of the most innovative use of small UAVs and may cause a lot of that R&D to countries besides the U.S.
posted by jjwiseman at 12:15 PM on February 25, 2015

Someone should do an FPP on the new FAA NPRM. It was accidentally put online before it was ready (actually it was an economic impact analysis that was leaked, but you could infer most of the proposed rules from that), then the FAA seemed to rush to officially publish it, putting out a press release a couple days later, on a Sunday. And you can judge how big the drone boom is, or wants to be, based on the huge number of articles and opinion pieces already out about the proposed rules and whether they're good, bad, good for safety, bad for business, etc.
posted by jjwiseman at 12:20 PM on February 25, 2015

Perhaps, but it's also the case that people will be using these things to spy on their neighbor's hot 16-year-old daughter taking a shower or tanning topless in the back yard. I mean, on the whole I agree with you that there's something of a knee-jerk response to the advent of cheap and easy-to-use drones underway, but don't pretend that there aren't obvious abuses of the technology which have nothing to do with exposing governmental malpractice.

But we can do that (Spy) with our telescopes. I hope you have supplied your 16 year old with a set of curtains and privacy glass for the shower. As to topless sunbathing well she might already be an exhibitionist if she is concerned with tan lines. So to you parents you might already have an issue and it is NOT with the FPV.

The "obvious abuse" is with the powers that be trying to strangle your (our) ability to hold them accountable. A little T&A is nothing compared to the gross abuse of power we see in our government/police state and justice system. Freedom has a price and it might just be a set of curtains and constant vigilance.
posted by Mag Plug at 12:26 PM on February 25, 2015

Snark aside, I mean come on. These things are not exactly quiet, and

it's the f***ing noise I object to the most. At least when Google or Facebook or whoever spies on me (or most likely my neighbors), they do it quietly. The world already has enough weedeaters, leafblowers etc here at ground level. We don't need the f***ing things flying around.

I personally love the idea of pod racing (as featured in the first link) becoming a popular sport/game. But as with other noisy things that are also fun -- some serious thought needs to given to containment.

A recent negative example is something I saw recently at a nice little lake (some would call it a pond) in a nearby park. One guy was playing with his radio-control speedboat and managing disrupt dozens of other folks' peace and quiet -- not to mention freaking out a few dogs and SCARING ALL THE DUCKS. That's an awful lot of lose for one guy's win.
posted by philip-random at 1:02 PM on February 25, 2015

Ella Fynoe: "It's a nice dream, but I think these aircraft bank much too quickly for a good sit-down simulator. If they rigged you up to a motion-based simulator for these aircraft, and it moved aggressively enough to match the accelerations with the visuals, your head would fly off."

One could programmatically limit the quadrotors to course changes that wouldn't kill the guy playing the game.
posted by Mitheral at 3:12 PM on February 25, 2015

Exactly! Which is why all forms of personal photography should be banned.

That is hilariously/tragically similar to the "so why not ban knives" response to anyone who tries to argue for sensible gun control.

Yeah, sure, cameras and telescopes exist. But if your claim is "drones can't get you to see anything you couldn't see in any case" then you clearly have no actual need for these drones, do you? So there's no reason to complain if they're made illegal, is there?

Oh, what's that? They do give you capabilities you otherwise wouldn't have? Great--then drop the BS about "why not just ban cameras and telescopes," please.
posted by yoink at 10:06 PM on February 25, 2015 [2 favorites]