Delivery drone crashes into power lines, causes outage
- Reference: 1664559009
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/09/30/delivery_drone_crashes_into_power/
- Source link:
The drone, which was carrying an unknown payload, made what Wing described to Australian media as a " [1]precautionary controlled landing " that led it to "[come] to rest on an overhead power line."
The crew who responded to the incident, Energex spokesman Danny Donald told The Age , they didn't even have to get the drone down off the lines. "It landed on top of 11,000 volts and whilst it didn't take out power, there was voltage tracking across the drone and the drone caught fire and fell to the ground," Donald said. "So we didn't actually have to get the drone off, as such."
[2]
Energex, the electricity company responsible for power in the region, said that there was no permanent damage to the network, and so Wing wouldn't be responsible for any repairs.
[3]
[4]
While 2,000 locals lost power for around 45 minutes, an additional 300 were left in the dark for three hours so Energex workers could be sure there was no damage to the lines, Donald said.
Another Wing ding
Wing began life as a Google X project before being spun out into its own subsidiary earlier in the decade. It now operates in Australia, Finland and the United States, where trials have been run in [5]Virginia and the [6]Dallas-Fort Worth metro area in Texas.
The Browns Plains outage is hardly the first trouble that Wing has had, especially in Australia, where residents of Canberra suburb Bonython ran the project out of town over complaints that Wing's drones were [7]loud enough to be a public nuisance .
Wing continued to operate in Canberra after leaving Bonython, but had to pull out of another suburb after ravens were spotted [8]attacking a Wing drone during COVID-19 lockdowns.
[9]
While Wing's drones don't appear to have ever caused another power outage, hobby drones have been responsible for similar occurrences – like in 2017 when a quadcopter took out power in Google's home town of Mountain View, California, for close to three hours after crashing into a power line and burning to a crisp.
In that instance a lot more damage occurred, with city officials saying the crash necessitated tens of thousands of dollars in repairs.
It's those sorts of incidents that Energex seems more concerned about, as Donald said he'd never seen a commercial drone accident like the Browns Plains one. What he has seen, he said, were a lot of power line-related accidents over the years involving toys.
[10]
"Fifteen years ago, we asked people to be careful if they were giving their children kites for Christmas and where they were flying them. Now we're asking parents to be very careful with where their kids fly their drones," Donald said. ®
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[1] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-30/food-delivery-drone-lands-on-power-lines-qld-browns-plains/101489670
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/edgeiot&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Yzdm@RiljNSL8tqQBpz9hgAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[5] https://www.theregister.com/2019/09/20/wing_drone_delivery_virginia_usa/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/04/texas_wing_drone/'
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2019/03/11/australia_google_drones/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/23/bird_attacks_ground_google_wing_drones/
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[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: came to rest on an overhead power line.
"And was immediately cremated." Can we see control video of this?!! Surely there is a video?
Icon for effect!
"While 2,000 locals lost power for around 45 minutes, an additional 300 were left in the dark for three hours so Energex workers could be sure there was no damage to the lines, Donald said. "
So, are those 2,000 people going to be compensated by Google for their outage? Especially the 300 people without power for three hours!
How about the utility company that had to respond to the incident?
It's about time these companies be held responsible for this moronic idea of using drones to deliver packages.
Yes not charging them "because there was no damage to the lines" is stupid. The incident still has a cost associated with it, and more importantly there should be incentives for Google et al to not cause incidents like this beyond the cost of replacing their drone.
If nothing else surely the government body responsible for allowing drones to be used for commercial purposes should issue fines when they hit something they aren't supposed to hit.
Big companies like Google and Amazon respond to economic incentives. They want drone delivery because it will save them money. They should bear the full cost of externalities like crashing into power lines or killing the neighbors dog when they drop your package on his head by mistake.
from the article
"The meal was still hot inside the drone's delivery box when the crew got there,"
No kidding, after bridging 11,000V, the meal would still be hot if the drone was delivering ice cream sandwiches.
Was it delivering a UPS?
Hawks can cause power outages to.
Earlier this year, the power went out at my kids house in the western US.
Later I drove by the spot where a power line had been upgraded from single phase to 3 phase. At the end where the new line connected to the older three phase line, there was a hawk sitting on one of the wires. And a near by wire connecting one phase between the old and the new lines was blowing in the wind. OK, big heavy wire so not flopping around, but definitely not connected.
I drove back 40 minutes later and there were 5 or 6 power company trucks there and a bunch of lineman were all standing around talking. And that wire wasn't hanging loose any more. Hopefully they were discussing proper line connections and testing your work. ;-)
The power was on back at the house when I got there.
precautionary controlled landing
So, as it was "controlled", it deliberately landed on the power lines then? What greater danger was being avoided that necessitated the fiery electrocution of the drone and disruption of power supplies as the least bad option? As for "landing", you need to be on the ground to claim that.
Another corporate attempt to big up something that's just fucked up.
It was an attempt to keep the delivery package safe by perching on the wire temporarily. Works for birds, right ?
This is an ex-drone!
This drone wouldn't go foomph if you put 11,000 volts through it!
"Fifteen years ago, we asked people to be careful if they were giving their children kites for Christmas and where they were flying them. Now we're asking parents to be very careful with where their kids fly their drones,"
The advantage of kites is that the kids don't get a second chance to short the power lines...
Nice photo of drone on the wires in the linked article
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-30/food-delivery-drone-lands-on-power-lines-qld-browns-plains/101489670
came to rest on an overhead power line.
And was immediately cremated.
But given that this is Australia, landing on a 11,000V is probably still safer than being on the ground with snakes/spiders/sheep