Amazon Drone Causes Brush Fire

 Likely this can be protected against. 

Will Amazon Have Ground its Drone Program?    by Matthew Stern in Retailwire

It was not so long ago that package delivery drones, specifically ones from Amazon.com, seemed poised to take flight as soon as the right regulatory bodies signed off. At present, however, the concept of package drop-off via drone is looking like it could be a dud.

Amazon’s drone program is nowhere near taking off despite nearly a decade in development. The company has made a $2 billion investment and has a global team of 1,000 people worldwide working on the project, according to a Yahoo Finance report on a Bloomberg investigation.

Speaking on Bloomberg TV, journalist Spencer Soper described problems with the Amazon drone design. In a test last summer, an Amazon drone experienced a motor failure while in flight and plummeted to the ground despite anti-crash safety features and caused a 25-acre brush fire with the explosion of its lithium battery.  .... '

Robot Dogs Join NY Fire Department

I recall they were rejected for any police work, but fighting fires is OK.  It seems the same 'Spot' style systems from Boston Dynamics.   Would like to see the kinds of processes being automated.   Reading up on it. 

See ‘Spot’ Save: Robot Dogs Join NY Fire Department

By The New York Times, March 18, 2022

Inside a dimly lit tunnel along a stretch of simulated subway track, one of the New York Fire Department's new dogs showed off a few of its tricks. Lie down. Roll over. Stay.

But the most remarkable things that the two robotic dogs can do were mastered by real dogs long ago: jogging across rugged terrain, hopping over small obstacles and helping keep their masters out of harm's way.

The department, which plans to deploy the robots in the months ahead, is the first fire agency in the country to purchase the 70-pound machines, which cost $75,000 each and are built and sold by Boston Dynamics, a robotics company.

The department plans to use the robots to aid in some of its most precarious search and rescue missions, which might help avoid the furious backlash that erupted when the New York Police Department began using the same technology.

From The New York Times

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