Stop calling them "drones"

PeaB4YouGo · 27 Jan 2015

"Drone" crashes at White House

I wish the media would stop calling these things "drones". Call them what they are; RC quad-copters, RC planes, TOYS!...

For my entire life, the word drone meant something that worked (semi-)autonomously, blindly and with little or no guidance. You can have a vacuum, or you can have a drone (Roomba).

The word "drone" has been incorporated into the modern lexicon in such a way as to make you believe that these toys are evil things that drop bombs and cause all sorts of chaos. And, the term "unmanned aerial drones" is just redundant. Of course, they're unmanned. Otherwise they'd be....airplanes and helicopters!! Ever hear of a manned drone? And, truthfully, I always considered platforms like the Predator and the Reaper nothing more than the ultimate in RC flying!

I'm sorry. Maybe I'm just too sensitive, but I think this is just one more tactic to discourage the RC flight hobby. Already, we have more rules governing RC flight than there are for some more dangerous pursuits. Okay, maybe there are a few of those rules that NEED to be in place, but would you rather have your kid playing with his SkyHog racers, or would you have him "...menacing the skies with his barely-controlled drone." (an actual quote from the local newspaper some months back after some kid buzzed the county fair.)

How long before the media associates "drone" with RC cars? How long before The Google Driverless Car becomes another drone? (Probably the first time someone loads it with C4 and programs it to crash into the White House. Who needs 72 Virgins? I'll take 5 women who know what they're doing, please. Oh shit....here comes the Secret Service.)

Thoughts?

Golden · 29 Jan 2015

I fancy getting one of those drones...looks like good fun.

essenbe · 29 Jan 2015

The military "Drones" who do kill people have a person on the other end flying them too. Same thing, only one has hell fire missiles and the other doesn't. They are both air planes controlled by someone not on board.

Golden · 29 Jan 2015

I read somewhere that EBay delivery by drone isn't too far into the distant future. How cool would that be!

ThrashZone · 29 Jan 2015

I believe they already do have drone drop off
UPS drop at your door step and run delivery practice

A Guy · 29 Jan 2015

I thought drones were honey bees? :)

A Guy

Golden · 29 Jan 2015

Im going to look at some drones this weekend and see what its all about.

A Guy · 30 Jan 2015

I have a friend who has a drone. Says it's fairly easy to fly. A Guy

ThrashZone · 30 Jan 2015

Even Microsoft made a drone for the win-10TP presentation

MrNeeds · 30 Jan 2015

original rant: Drones are named because it's an unmanned vehicle, not because it's a saying used by the military, I think of it as a word for a work horse, a mindless object or creature that does what it's told to do.

a few years back when parrot released their quadcopter, they exclusively didn't call it a drone because you couldn't set GPS waypoints, the reason DJI call theirs drones is because you can set waypoints, they are correct calling it a drone in the above link because the model that crashed is a DJI phantom which is classed as a drone.