While the focus of drone advancement lately has been split between warfare and cool light shows outside of sporting events, there has also been a growing use of drone systems to aid in emergency response. This concept vision4rescue from Renault shows what’s possible with a small electric car, which makes a lot of sense to me.
One of the most dangerous things I’ve ever done in my life was taking a trip in a gyrocopter being tested by a semi-rural Texas police department. This was before the proliferation of drones, and it was one of many jurisdictions having to share one police helicopter with the rest of a large, populous county. The gyrocopter had a much lower operating cost than the helicopter, could be deployed more quickly, and didn’t require as much pilot training.
What it did require was an ability to repeatedly fly in a vehicle that felt like a rollercoaster without tracks, doors, or a roof. It was fun and terrifying, but only someone with a Mercedes Streeter-like false sense of invincibility could do it more than once. Drones basically made the idea obsolete.
That’s why this French fire service (Saupers Pompiers) vehicle caught my eye. Here’s how the company explains it:
A fully operational vehicle, vision4rescue explores the way in which design can serve the community and support a more efficient and better coordinated response by the emergency services.
vision4rescue builds on Renault’s advanced knowledge of the needs of the emergency services, acquired through a partnership formed with fire services in 19 countries over 15 years ago. The demo-car is part of the high-tech ecosystem developed by Software République, a group of seven French companies with combined expertise in smart, secure and sustainable mobility, based on a partnership with three fire services in particular.
Featuring nearly 20 interconnected solutions, the ecosystem was designed to standardise the different technologies used by the emergency services for a faster and better coordinated response.
The demo-car serves as a mobile, connected command centre, able to analyse the situation and adapt the response of the emergency services in real time, whatever the circumstances. It features innovative, integrated equipment such as a surveillance drone, and a range of specific stowage compartments for equipment.
The Renault 4 is the company’s smaller EV, and one that’s already spawned some incredible concepts. In the United States we tend to think of emergency response vehicles as these giant, full-featured trucks. That might work here, but in smaller cities and denser urban areas in Europe, something small in flexible like this Renault makes sense.
Fire departments are just starting to use roof-mounted drones, as Firehouse reports in this big feature about the future of drones and firefighting:
Some departments and experts argue that the full integration of drones within the fire service is imminent, and according to Skydio Public Safety Customer Success Center Manager Jason LaFond, who is a captain for the Katonah, NY, Fire Department (KFD), all it takes is one drone to start.
“Many fire departments think you must be a big agency to have a drone program,” LaFond tells Firehouse. “That’s just not true. You can get tons of value from having one drone. Don’t let perfection be the enemy. Starting a program doesn’t have to be this crazy thing.”
DJI already makes a roof-mounted deployment system for its drones, which can be fitted to a number of vehicles. An EV is also a decent choice, as it can loiter for long periods of time, charge drones, and doesn’t have to do so while burning fuel.
Also, because this is Renault, the graphics are incredible.
A drone in a hard case is a better solution. Not dependent on any single vehicle, can be tossed into any ladder truck, pumper, ambulance, pickup, SUV, golf cart, bicycle, or boat.
Seems like a hybrid would be even better for the use case, at least in remote areas. It can still charge drones using the HV battery, but can self recharge using the Gas engine as needed, and can bring along extra gas cans for more range/endurance.
One of the offroad recovery channels I follow on youtube uses drones not just for filming, but also for recon. They’ve used them to locate stuck/stranded vehicles, and to scout the trail ahead to ensure its passable for vehicles.
I want something similar for road trips, but instead of a drone, I want it to be an RC aircraft capable of high speed, with cameras and sensors integrated with AI.
Imagine: You’re going 65mph, you launch the aircraft, it flies 1 mile ahead, it knows your current route and it knows where you’re located. It will stay 1 mile ahead at all times, using AI to scan for police officers and speed traps, which would then relay it back to the car. You can now safely go 120mph without worrying about tickets.
Until then, there’s Waze…
I joke that the cops sometimes get bored and use Waze by deliberately driving around and pushing the cop button repetitively to mess with us.
Its all fun and games till you slide your 120+ mph BMW right into a cop giving a speeding ticket to another BMW:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/autos-luxury/watch-a-cop-escape-terrifying-120-mph-double-bmw-crash/ar-AA1F3OgB
Speed Racer did it first!
Years ago I was contemplating a Ford Excursion, so I joined an Excursion forum. One of the folks on there did some serious mods for assisting emergency services. Since multiple agencies use difference equipment, frequencies, and standards, communications between them was difficult. The Excursion was outfitted with 14 diffferent pieces of equipment and antennas and equipped to provide cross-communicate between them. The owner bragged that they were doing that while driving. Forget about cell phone distraction, try listening to multiple radios and figuring out how to match them up!
A drone could be used with any vehicle. I’m surprised that the average police department doesn’t have one or two for search & rescue.
With a bit of payload, add a fire extinguisher, IR cameras, and/or other bits of kit and it could be more than just an eye in the sky.
They do, at least around here. A few guys fell off a boat at night, so they were using them to try to locate them. They found everbody except for one person, who was found a week later :\
Not just for rescue but I feel like a lot of things helicopters are used for now should be drones, unless it literally involves transporting someone. News reporting, police patrol as mentioned, traffic patrol, search and rescue.
A few years ago in Charlotte a local weatherman and pilot were on a routine flight and their copter crashed, clear skies normal day, no reason for it when commercial drones can do so much now.
But…what do the drones actually do?
Provide visibility of a situation that you may not want to get closer to until you know the scoop.
That, but mostly Search & Rescue.
Go find the nearest boulangerie so the firefighters don’t get too peckish.
Every firefighter, EMT, or police officer knows where the food is. No searching involved.
If you’re visiting a new town, ask the nearest first responder where the good stuff is.
This is brilliant, seems like it would also have plenty of other applications, from self-spotting for offroad adventures to the occasional strike on a Russian Tu-95.
With roof-mounted drones, the sky is the limit.
Y=(R^3)/3
Put the video screen in front of the steering wheel and have the drone follow the car so people who grew up playing video games know how to drive the car from rear of the car view.
I’ve thought about roof mounted drones as being useful for package delivery. The drone delivery from some centralized distribution center never made sense to me. I thought it would be much better to have a drone picking packages off the roof of a delivery truck as it slowly drives through neighborhoods. You could even have a couple and they could charge if they weren’t actively delivering packages. If autonomous driving is ever solved the whole operation becomes autonomous, but having the driver with line of sight could be useful if the drones get hung up or just to prevent people from messing with them.
I have some experience with the Yangwang (lmao) U8’s roof-mounted DJI Mavic, and while I scoffed at first, I have to admit it’s executed pretty well. The roof pod stores three batteries (kept at 65%, one charges to 95% when you’re driving), and a tiny little robotic arm swaps out the batteries and physically prods the power button to turn it on. You use the infotainment screen and a Yangwang-branded radio to fly it, and videos and pics get downloaded to the car. The pod’s landing pad isn’t that large, but the landing success rate is much higher than I expected (1/10 landings fail due to crosswinds, move the car behind a wall and try again).
Flying when waiting for the car to fast charge is pretty fun; too bad pricing is a bit ludicrous. If I ever join the Yang-gang (wang-gang?) I’m probably not spending 17K USD extra on a (admittedly well-executed) flying camera. For commercial and federal operators though, it’s definitely a steal.
No emergency response vehicle has any right having so much style. The red rings on the steelies with the stylized 4 in the center is just perfection, not to mention a metallic red, instead of the usual flat paint, the multidirectional hatching on the yellow in the perfect contrasting shade, just perfect.
This sounds like a great idea that should be part of the standard funding for S&R teams in the US.
But it’s not military surplus so most police departments won’t want it.
Drones are the latest toy for MBTs. Maybe mount the drone box on top of a “surplus” M1 Abrams, and Florida police departments will be all over it.
Totally. No only could they help locate people, but if properly equipped could even deliver supplies while waiting for a rescue (with so much more flexibility and lower cost of a helicopter rescue).
So now when unprepared idiots get billed for bailing them out, it’s $1,500 instead of $20,000. Well, assuming they don’t need an ambulance ride, too. Then it’s back to $20,000 again. #America
They won’t have to pay $20k.
It’ll be paid by insurance, who’ll then pass down the cost to everyone else to cover.
Or it’ll be paid by the county/state in the case where they can’t afford 20k, and then it’ll be covered by your taxes.
If only there was a way to raise taxes and cover it with reasonable non-inflated pricetags, and skip the extra steps that bankrupt people who are caught up when insurance denies them (since the county/state foots the bill in the end anyway).
The modest police department I work with (on the board) has 3 drones, with plans to make them first responder qualified.
Frankly, its a great idea!