This week, in True or False Junior, we answer students’ questions about drones. Is it true that they will replace us in different sectors of activity? Shouldn’t we be afraid of being spied on by them? Is it true that they already make home deliveries?
A drone is a device that does not have a pilot on board, which is therefore controlled remotely. Some fly, others roll on land and some even go underwater. Students from Sacré-Cœur college in Marseille and those from Jules-Ferry college have questions about these flying drones. To answer them, we called on Olivier Lascar, he is the editor-in-chief of the digital division of Science and the future.
Drones to help us in certain tasks, but not to replace us
Clemence saw “that surveyors and security guards at festivals could be replaced by drones” and she wonders if this is true.
Olivier Lascar admits that drones are used by surveyors and festivals, but according to him, “no, drones are not there to replace surveyors, but rather to play the role of a new tool that surveyors will use and which completely changes their relationship to work.” A surveyor is a professional who evaluates the dimensions of a building or a site to establish its characteristics. Over time, explains Olivier Lascar, “you had to do everything, not by hand, because there were already electronic devices to assess distances, but it was a bit tedious.” So “the drone while flying makes it possible to follow facades and roofs and a few tens of minutes are enough to map a site of several hectares, whereas before it could take hours.“
The same goes for monitoring a festival, Olivier Lascar explains to us, “the drone has the ability to monitor a site 360 degrees and if there is a problem it can quickly detect it and alert security on land, which can intervene directly..”
Respect for privacy is still a debate with the drone
Loane wonders if we should not fear that “malicious people use it to spy on citizens.”
Olivier Lascar first wants to reassure Loane by reminding us that there are rules to respect when you have a drone. For example, he explains, “for consumer drones, there is a Chinese company which is very well known in the field and which makes extremely efficient products. It equips its drones with internal mapping that the device has in memory and which indicates the places where it can fly and conversely, those where it cannot fly.“This means that if we go to a forbidden place, such as a tarmac, the drone indicates it and refuses to go there.
Noah also wonders if it’s true “that we have the right to fly over private property.”
No, this is not allowed unless the owner(s) of this property give their consent. Among the other rules governing drones, there is an exam to be taken online if the drone weighs more than 250 grams and yet another exam beyond 500 grams, but these are more expensive and less expensive drones. accessible to the general public.
Home deliveries by drone exist, but “it’s still very embryonic”
Elaya wonders if it’s true “that drones will soon be used to make home deliveries”.
“Yes, it’s true“, replies Olivier Lascar. Drones are already used to make home deliveries, but it is still very embryonic.“ For example, at Amazon, they have been thinking about it for a very long time, since 2013. Olivier Lascar explains that this year, “Amazon has moved up a gear with two small towns in the United States which are equipped with a drone delivery service where objects weighing around two kilos can be delivered”. Amazon explains that in less than an hour, from the moment the customer clicks to order a product, it can be delivered. Olivier Lascar specifies that “the drone does not even land, it delivers the package from its altitude with a tether system, in a garden or in a parking lot.”
But more generally, we are still in the testing phases. In France, La Poste is carrying out experiments, particularly in Isère for mountain areas that are difficult to access by car.