Tesla/Musk Mention on NPR's "Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me!"

[berkeley_ecar]

This week's edition (27 May 2017) of NPR's comedy news quiz show, "Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me!" features a mention of Tesla and Elon Musk in its "Bluff the LIstener" segment: skip to 4:42 if you don't want to hear the other choices in this 3-choice quiz question.

 

[BluestarE3]

I guessed the right answer.

 

[berkeley_ecar]

I guessed the right answer.

But the Model S doesn't have falcon wing doors?

 

[SMAlset]

I guess our car is missing the sweat mode...came with ventilated seats .

 

[CAF]

I'll catch a few minutes of "Wait, wait.." every once in a while, simply amazed that the hosts seem to think they're funny! Saturday just isn't the same since the end of "Car Talk".

 

[BluestarE3]

There's also this: Ford studies using drones to guide self-driving cars
So not as far-fetched as it may seem.

 

[SMAlset]

I know UPS recently demo'd for the public a video of using drones to drop off some lightweight packages and then catch up to the truck on its return trip so the Cadillac sounded more plausible.

I'm not a fan of this use personally and don't want drones flying over our property. Now the falcon perch really had me scratching my head.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

I'm not a fan of this use personally and don't want drones flying over our property.

I don't think anyone wants any drones flying over their property as a free-for-all. That infringes privacy rights.

However, we'll never be able to put this type of delivery system in place without some sort of framework that allows the drones to fly over people's property while protecting their privacy rights. The benefits of such a delivery system are too great to ignore, so we need to work it out.

I envision a framework of regulations that include some things like these:

• Privately-owned (unregistered) drones cannot fly over private property at all.
• Registered commercial drones may fly over private property under the following conditions:

1. The company who operates the drone must be registered and qualified to operate them.
2. The drone itself must be registered in a publicly available database.
3. The drone must continuously emit (squawk) a beacon identification signal that can be received with low-cost consumer equipment. The signal will contain the unique identifier of the drone, and that identifier can be used to look up the drone in the publicly available database.
4. The database will contain the drone model, capabilities, operating company, dates of operation, purpose of the drones flight, and all current and past flight plan information.
5. The company will have a drone operation policy available for the public to view.
6. The drone is permitted to have on-board cameras for navigation purposes only. No images or video from said cameras is allowed to be stored, transmitted, or exhibited without express written consent of the property owner that the camera took images of.
7. The drone must fly autonomously, not under human control.
8. When flying over private property, the drone will adhere to a minimum altitude that it cannot go below unless actually making a delivery on that property.

I think this would be a good start to alleviate people's concerns with delivery drones.

 

[Snerruc]

I'll catch a few minutes of "Wait, wait.." every once in a while, simply amazed that the hosts seem to think they're funny! Saturday just isn't the same since the end of "Car Talk".

+1

 

[SMAlset]

Didn't they just quash a requirement to register drones? And if a drone crashes on your personal property how are they going to get it?

 

[BluestarE3]

And if a drone crashes on your personal property how are they going to get it?

Send in a rescue drone?

 

[BluestarE3]

Now the falcon perch really had me scratching my head.

See, for me, that was the one that seemed plausible.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

Didn't they just quash a requirement to register drones? And if a drone crashes on your personal property how are they going to get it?

Correct, the FAA had proposed that all drones, including personally owned recreational drones, be registered. However, that is now not going to happen. That's probably the better decision, it would be a logistical nightmare to have every person who owns a recreational drone have to register it.

Company-owned fleets of drones doing deliveries are a different story though, I would wager they will have a registration requirement at some point.

 

[ecarfan]

I'll catch a few minutes of "Wait, wait.." every once in a while, simply amazed that the hosts seem to think they're funny! Saturday just isn't the same since the end of "Car Talk".

I enjoy Wiat Wait and have for years now. I used to listen to Car Talk but after several years found it becoming repetitious. And I never heard any discussion of EVs even during the final few seasons when Tesla was starting to get a lot of media attention.

 

[ohmman]

I'll catch a few minutes of "Wait, wait.." every once in a while, simply amazed that the hosts seem to think they're funny! Saturday just isn't the same since the end of "Car Talk".

Sometimes you need the full episode to get the overall humor. I agree that coming in for a quick listen doesn't always make it sound very funny. There are also some episodes that just don't click - but quite a few do. I'm a fan.