i mean they will probably do that as well, but we are a way off from completely replacing humans for things like hostage rescue, seizing infrastructure without damaging it, acting in poor visibility, operating in theaters with contested electronic warfare capabilities, and other ambiguous, complicated, or politically sensitive tasks. especially ground drones don't perform well in poor visibility and unpredictable terrain. to make a drone cheap they use cameras instead of LIDAR, so its harder to program software to interpret the visual data. with LIDAR it would have distance data as well and could compensate for things like dust and weather and lighting at least. but then the drones would be too expensive to use in many scenarios. and remote operated drones can be hacked or at least jammed and cut off from commands, resorting to preset behaviors and retreat routes, more and more militaries and groups will have more and more EW capability as the tech is cheaper to produce.

[–] WayeeCool@hexbear.net 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

to make a drone cheap they use cameras instead of LIDAR

Can't use LIDAR in most military applications not due to cost but because it makes your vehicles and drones into a beacon that can be seen for miles through not just infrared optics but even shitty digital cameras. Most people don't realize this unless they live somewhere companies are testing self driving cars and sidewalk delivery robots. First time you see them on digital security camera, it's a real "wtf is that" moment.

check out this security camera footage: https://youtube.com/watch?v=uOWPj-4SSTU

You don't notice this with the naked eye because LIDAR systems all have their lasers tuned to the near-infrared spectrum (like an ir TV remote) but with a standard CMOS camera sensor it looks like the vehicle has a lighthouse installed on it. With smart phone cameras made in the last 7 or so years because they added a filter to remove it so people's pictures/video don't get randomly fkd up.