Drones have been around for years, but with today’s technology there are more advancements and development happening every day where they are concerned. It’s actually incredible to think about how far drones have come. From basic toy drones that are good for a 5-minute flight, to drones that have insane cameras onboard for the best aerial photography.
Thinking about the most innovative drone technology developments for the future, you have to wonder what we will get next. It’s also good to think about what we as the consumer would like to see, what’s possible, and what could come out of all the advancements that we already have now in the future.
Drones Are Quickly Taking Over Everything
If you haven’t heard, shipping and delivery companies, including UPS, are moving toward the idea of replacing human delivery drivers with drones. Scary, right? Amazon is also considering doing the same thing, which has got a lot of people thinking. Many questions, including whether or not packages will actually arrive or be lost forever, are on everyone’s mind.
People are using drones for outrageous tasks, as well. For example, Trey Ratcliff was detained by police in China for using a DJI Phantom 2 to take pictures of the Forbidden City.
The BurjKhalifa in Dubai was also captured by a drone’s camera. Thankfully, though, this place isn’t forbidden and the photographer wasn’t arrested for doing so. The BurjKhalifa is the tallest building the world right now, which just proves that drones can go incredibly high in the sky.
Taking selfies manually is definitely a thing of the past. A lot of the more advanced professional camera drones that are out today can literally do it for you. “Selfie Mode” is a feature that gets the drone’s camera to focus on you, typically through a facial recognition system.
The Future of Flying Cars
Watching The Jetsons as a kid gave us hope for a future that was drastically different than the one that we have now. Most of us expected to be driving in flying cars, ones that generally did the driving for us, by now.
Fast forward to today, however, we’re finally getting what we initially desired. A new concept of a flying car, the “multimodal transportation concept”, will soon let us take to the skies in order to get to work, go grocery shopping, you name it.
One aerospace company has taken this dream into their hands and is currently running with it. Airbus has created the Pop.Up to unite automotive and aerospace technologies for a new type of car that is going to change the game completely.
Italdesign and Airbus unleashed their creation, being their transforming car, to the Geneva International Motor Show to show just how far drones are taking us. Drones used to be manned by a transmitter, but now we’re looking at a large drone that lets us take the wheel, literally.
The Pop.Up has a total of three layers: the passenger capsule, the artificial intelligence platform, and the system’s user interface. Overall, the Pop.Up is said to be the solution to pollution as a result of cars and transportation issues from congested highways and general roadways.
At this time of writing, there is no development or surefire release date for the Pop.Up. However, one thing is definitely for sure, if Airbus and their partners don’t end up releasing this flying car, another company definitely will. Now that the concept is on the table everyone is going to be looking to grab a piece of the action.
Next Up: Flying Motorcycles and Bikes?
Not only are we supposedly getting a flying car that has the design based off of a drone, but we are also getting a flying hoverbike that comes from the same thing.
The Russian drone startup, Hoversurf, has released their concept for the Scorpion-3 hoverbike. It’s half motorcycle, half drone, and is like riding a bike in the air. It’s literally the first quadcopter you can actually sit on and fly yourself.
The Scorpion-3 hoverbike has combined the technology that goes into a quadcopter drone and paired it with the design of a basic motorcycle. The result is an electric-powered bike that hovers and drives in the air, which can lift both itself and the pilot up into the sky.
It comes with custom software that allows the most amateur of fliers to drive it. It has both automated and manual control to ensure that it has your driving style preference onboard and in control.
At this time of writing, there is so release date for the Scorpion-3 that has been set in stone, but a lot of people are doing their best to wait patiently for one. Like the Pop.Up, the Scorpion-3 will change how we drive to Point A and Point B every day.
The Mothership from Amazon
Earlier we mentioned that Amazon was moving toward using drones for their shipping service. Well, those who were anxiously awaiting news can finally have it, because Amazon’s Mothership has finally gotten the patent they desperately needed.
Their drone will be one enormous drone that is made out of multiple smaller ones to ensure that long-distance flights and carrying heavy packages won’t be a problem. Once the smaller ones are no longer required to be attached, they will drop out of the formation and go off on their own to independently deliver any smaller packages needed within the area or somewhere else.
The patent boasts that the drone, and other small ones that break off the formation, will be able to carry just about anything. However, a lot of people are still concerned about package loss, so it’s now a waiting game to see what else Amazon will comment on to help us learn more.
The Future of Drones in Our Daily Lives
While some get overly anxious at the thought of technology ruling everything, a lot of people are excited to see what will be released into our newly delved world.
