Friday, November 23, 2012
Autonomous vehicles and flying drones that would disable a suspect’s
car remotely with an electromagnetic pulse are set to patrol highways by
2025 according to a number of concept vehciles designed by major
manufacturers such as Honda, BMW and General Motors.
The 2012 LA Design Challenge asked companies to come up with a concept
for “Highway Patrol Vehicle 2025,” with the winner set to be announced
next week.
Most of the entrants for the competition have responded with designs
that overwhelmingly suggest “patrol cars and motorcycles would be
replaced by computerized drones,” within the next 10-15 years, reports
the New York Times.
Honda’s entry, the Honda CHP Drone Squad, includes both a four wheeled
drone vehicle and a two-wheeled motorcycle-style drone, both of which
would hunt down suspects without the need to be manned.
General Motors’ concept, named the Vault Squad, includes three
futuristic vehicles designed to “observe, pursue or engage.” The NY
Times noted that the term “engage” was “left menacingly undefined.”
BMW’s DesignworksUSA studio came up the E-Patrol (Human-Drone Pursuit
Vehicle), which would allow the operator to deploy an airborne armed
surveillance drone which would have the capability to disable a
suspect’s vehicle using an electromagnetic pulse.
“The main structure can deploy three drones. The top drone sits above
the main structure and is a flying drone, while the other two are one
wheel vehicles attached to the rear,” according to BMW. “In the case of a
pursuit during heavy traffic areas, the patrol officer sitting in the
two passenger main structure can deploy either the flying drone or one
of the single wheel drones to chase the suspect and report back data to
the main structure. When all drones are deployed, the main structure can
continue to function. All drones have added protection benefits in that
they can send an impulse to another vehicle and disable it.”
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