Google to use ‘spy drones’ for street mapping

[JCMach1]

Source: Khaleej Times

Internet search engine giant Google has plans to use “spy drones” similar to the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used in military operations for surveillance and bombing to prepare more accurate maps of streets across the globe.

Sven Juerss, the chief executive of Microdrones GmbH, a German firm which builds UAVs, has said that his company has already supplied Google with one aircraft and expects to provide “dozens” more in the future, The Telegraph reported Tuesday.

”The UAVs are well suited to provide more timely recording of the map service Google Earth,” Juerss told German business magazine Wirtschaft Woche.

Microdrones sells its UAVs to Merseyside Police, and it is rumoured to have previously sold them to British special forces as well, technology website, The Register, said...

Read more: http://khaleejtimes.com/Displayarticle08.asp?section=technology&xfile=data/technology/2010/August/technology_August21.xml

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Big GOOGLE is watching!

[Frisbee]

1. Google...

the CIA and DoD's newest subcontractor. And who know's what other governments may want to talk to Google.

[Deb]

2. Curious, do these things fly very high in the air?

It sounds like something the kids around here would shoot at.

[pasto76]

11. dammit, that was my thought. Except not kids, "patriots"

like that one nut who was shooting at a low flying helicopter a few years back. Claimed he thought it was al quaeda.

[MoonGlow]

26. you cannot see a drone

[Supply Side Jesus]

3. but i love the compromising pics !

i'll miss them ;( :P

[onehandle]

4. 'Don't be evil' Google embracing its future as corporate overlord.

Killing Net Neutrality and now Civilians.

Rid yourselves of everything Google, Now!

[eowyn_of_rohan]

5. Can we shoot them?

actually i don't have a gun - but this would inspire me.

[JCMach1]

8. How about a laser pointer against them?

That would seem more reasonable!

[eowyn_of_rohan]

21. I'm not an expert on weaponry

thanks for the tip ;)

*** !!! HAHA JOKE!!! ***

[Phil The Cat]

17. Beyond the legal jeopardy

Suppose you shot down some kids toy? Or the UAV crashed and hurt or killed somebody?

Or turned out to be a small manned aircraft?

Don't forget - you will probably miss, and the bullet has to come down somewhere!

I haven't checked, but I bet the Alex Jones types are REALLY blowing a gasket and shopping for Stinger missles!

(PS I know you are joking, but without the Sarcasm tag it can be hard to tell)

[eowyn_of_rohan]

20. I can dream, can't I?

So far, no law against fantasizing

I want to add... which crime is worse: Violating our Constitutional Rights or shooting down an unmanned spy drone?

[Phil The Cat]

23. Either one can hurt or kill innocent people!

I don't see how flying a UAV past your house is any different than flying a manned airplane past your house!

I can see a problem if they linger on some place or someone, but the purpose seems to be to make accurate maps! Which is very important to help deliver goods and services to people! And useful to protect what we can of the environment!

Perhaps it is time to ban aerial photography? Then, how do we keep an eye on industrial sites and watch for illegal logging and other enviromental disasters?

OK, I admit it - I also like to take Virtual Vacations using Google Maps and Street View! It makes you feel so much more connected to the world outside of your neighborhood!

[eowyn_of_rohan]

24. Montag destroyed a mechanical hound with a flamethrower

didn't hurt any people ;)

Who sent you here? I don't trust your rap.

[tomm2thumbs]

6. the black helicopters really ARE coming!

alert FoxNews - they need some viewers this week

[Xithras]

7. FWIW, this would be illegal in the U.S.

Current FAA regs require that a human pilot have visual control over any aircraft operating over populated areas. The LAPD recently got into a bit of trouble for testing drones this way...if you can't see it with your own two eyes, you can't fly it over a city.

I'm a bit surprised that Britain permits it.

[Winterblues]

19. Republicans came to the conclusion long ago that it is better to

just do something and apologize later than to ask permission and wait for the answer.

[kickysnana]

9. That is what they want you to believe.

:tinfoilhat:

[earcandle]

10. What do you know.... bet you might think this is a UFO when it passes over, huh?

[grantcart]

12. Uh if its announced in public its not spying

What difference does it make if there is a pilot or not.

It will be just a few years until all of the traffic helicopters are replaced with drones.

[TheEuclideanOne]

13. Sorry to bum everybody out

But who here really thinks that we have any inkling of privacy left? At this point, it is like a convict who is alreay going to spend his life in prison getting an extra 10 years. We are not losing any type of privacy because you can't lose something that is already taken away.

[earcandle]

14. must be freaky for those with something to hide.. ... how do we deal with the

fight for privacy in the face of so much crime, suspicion,
duplicity.   

hmmm,, sounds like another "fighting" industry to
prop up and take our funds. 

[Tunkamerica]

16. I agree and yet disagree

while much of our traditional idea of privacy has been eroded, there is still something there to lose. And to treat that bit as nothing actually encourages encroachment. I don't think technology can be stopped, nor do I think an apathetic public can be bothered to care about freedoms half remembered; but we must think of ourselves as guardians and not be easily swayed into discouragement by recent developments. The ideal of privacy should not be so easily discouraged.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

22. + 1000

"freedoms half remembered..." so sad

[Phil The Cat]

18. Outside - How CAN there be privacy?

Airplanes have been flying since 1903! And varous picture taking satellites (spy, weather, mapping, etc) since the early 1960s!

Yes, the technology is getting better, but the principal is the same! If it is open to the sky, it is open to the world!

[JCMach1]

25. Not just better think of TB resolution in real-time, well don't say the Iraq war was for nothing

much of the imaging technology we are looking at was pioneered there. Now the private contractors want to cash in on the advances they made for the military.

[Ichingcarpenter]

15. Half Life 2- City Scanners

Players of Half-Life 2 are familiar with the City Scanners, small autonomous surveillance drones.