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news
Video: Fleetlights - a personal drone that lights your way
Here’s an unexpected video from Direct Line that includes cyclists riding on a path that would be unlit, were they not bathed in the light of drones flying above them.
Filmed in and around Petworth, West Sussex the video also shows the drones, called Fleetlights, lighting the way home for a pub worker after her shift and for a member of a Lowland Rescue team.
They’re aimed at addressing an issue that will be all too apparent to cyclists and others at this time of year with the nights drawing in and cash-strapped councils switching off street lights.
Developed in partnership with ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi and technology expert Michael Oborne, of Mission Planner, the drones are controlled by prototype software called Fleet Control which works in harness with GPS and a smartphone app.
Mark Evans, Marketing Director at Direct Line Group said: “Increasingly, technology will shift the centre of gravity for insurance from restitution towards prevention.
“We want to lead the trend into this space and so we are always looking at innovative ways to proactively improve everyday life through emerging technologies.
“We felt that street lights could be much better, especially as the nights draw in. This beta technology has been created to show how a responsive light service could help people to feel safer.”
Someone who is very enthused about the prospect of having his own personal drone to light the way is road.cc’s own John Stevenson, and not just because of its usefulness for walking the dogs at this time of year.
John says: “I’ve always wanted to feel like I’m in Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind while I’m out riding, so I want one of these!
“More seriously, it’s hard to imagine even the dimmest driver failing to see you if you’ve one of these following you on an unlit lane.
“I do wonder how they’d cope with the under bridges on the Bath-Bristol Path though."
Not to mention the chaos overhead if everyone cycling across Blackfriars Bridge, say, at rush hour had one.
This video explains the technology behind them.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
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May need insurance, tax and a licence. No problem with the lights though.
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14 comments
I appear to have slept through winter and woken up at the start of April...........................
Surely this is a marketing hoax???
Can someone direct me to Road.cc please? I seem to have stumbled into LudditesOnline.com (although I do recognize that, that in itself, may be an oxymoron)...
Totally pointless
The drones will only last a few minutes before the batteries go flat unless they're developing some micro nuclear plant as power source this is nothing short of marketing bollocks, probably as a way for Direct Line to get out of paying a claim...what? no personal drone to light you up when the texting driver hit you, no compenstion for you.
Pointlessly expensive and only works as long as the short period the drone can fly for.
If the councils upgrade the street lights to LEDs the power and maintence costs drop loads. Some of the dangerously off street lights are probably because councils can't be bothered or can't afford to fix the old tech. lights, or better still fit an LED head!
I'm also puzzled why any fluorescent lights, tube and CFLs, are still sold and maintained now given how fast mains LED lights have dropped in price, including those with defusers; the end of life flicker of a fluorescent light is quite annoying!
I'm no jeanius but wouldn't the app be better connecting to existing street lights...
The drones have GPS, so perhaps they can switch their light off where there are existing streetlights, saving their batteries.
If you mean that streetlights should be off until activated by an app, wouldn't motion detectors be a better idea? Then the streetlights can go off when there's no-one around, and come on when someone passes without their needing any fancy technology at all. And that idea exists already and is deployed in several places.
Not to mention the chaos overhead if everyone cycling across Blackfriars Bridge, say, at rush hour had one.
For that reason this would be completely illegal just about everywhere. There is a blanket ban on drones flying within 50m of a building or 30m of a person or anywhere out of sight of the controller. Also many parks outlaw drones. The video and article does not explain what this does that a simple torch cannot do. Completely over-engineered solution where there isn't a problem in the first place
Wouldnt fancy using these near gun-toting country set!
I do like this idea but as my route takes me under several bridges and overhanging trees I am not sure that the drone would survive due to such encounters (or can it avoid such obsticles?).
I love this!! Great idea so many practical uses, loving the cycling, dog walking, jogging (err... swimming?) idea especially.
However, whatever this costs I'm pretty sure I can't afford it, so one may say that I'm doomed to be one of the people left in the dark when this technology arrives.
Could they also make one that hovers over cars and shines on the speedo?
My first thought as well.
As a professional mugger and miscreant ne'er do well, may I just say that I can't wait for these to be made reality, an airborne beacon letting me know the speed and heading of an incoming victim without ever having to leave the safety of the shadows. Marvellous.