UAS News Podcast — 2012-11-10
Transcript
Alright, hello everyone and welcome to another installment or episode of the UAS News Podcast Series where we talk to the newsmakers or are the newsmakers or discuss the news depending upon what's going on. And first off we start off it's Veterans Day weekend and I want to extend a thank you to all of our veterans out there wherever you are. Hey and we have our co-host today is Gene. Gene, you out there buddy.
I am out here and I'm ready to celebrate Veterans Day too. I don't know what I'm going to do but I'll still celebrate it. I think you're already out there celebrating it this morning but I'm your host Patrick Egan as always. We're going to I think today we're going to talk about it.
Today's podcast is called Between the Lines. We're going to talk about a lot of current news stories and how to glean information out of those news stories. I find a lot of information in those news stories Gene. You know I think that now that the election is over with and that all that soup was kind of dives down we're starting to see some of the things that were developing prior to the election and it's starting to come out a little at a time and I'm not terribly surprised that some things were suppressed if you will.
It would be good on any administration if it came out that way but you know that's kind of the way it's been here recently at least in the last term for sure and I think we're going to have to start getting used to getting between those lines to get the infill. I would concur with that. You know there's a lot of stuff going on out there and it seems strange to me. I don't know whatever maybe people are distracted with other things.
I know the election a lot of people were caught up on that and geez the news cycles just got crazy. I mean I was a little tired of you even hearing about the election. It's been over soon enough for me either. The rhetoric and the bastion and the mudswing and it was probably one of the most contentious that I can remember in my 56 years of being around.
I think we hit the ad nauseum wall and you know either way I mean it doesn't really matter. A lot of people had a lot of mixed feelings on that deal and whatever you know you move on. I don't know. We've got chubbier fish to fry and maybe that's because I've got a view where it's like hey all unmanned all the time and then you know that's I think what we're going to talk about today is talk about some of these stories for some perspective and insights some commentary.
Again you know I don't know if this happens to you but I get these new stories break on the page and my phone starts ringing and people are you know calling and asking questions inventing and talking about the nuances of it and trying to get my take on it and you know I don't know. A lot of this stuff you just kind of got to take it and understand it and think about it and decide you know is it a good thing or is it a bad thing or what can
I glean out of this and then and what can I use for myself in the future as part of consulting or you know that I'm moving forward and giving advice to potential clients and whatnot.
Does that happen to you Gene? You get phone calls people ranting and raving or what?
Well you know there's certainly a lot of what I call noise out there and you really have to set up the filters so that you get through the noise and you find out what the meat of the matter is and yeah you bet. You know obviously both of us have been quoted a number of times various publications and we get the calls all the time that you know this rumor has popped up is this true?
Are we about to do such-and-such? Where did you get that?
You know there's some really crazy things that are going on out there and with the privacy issue and the whole situation and what's going on with it and the new administration there yeah it happens all the time. The phone calls come and you would not believe some of the comments that we get or some of the rumors that we hear are coming on the pipe right now and it's going to impact everyone. Yeah it is kind of interesting
and especially I mean I'm sure you're in the same boat because you're an old-timer in this industry is you probably know people from all different you know walks of let's say the sector I don't want to say walks of life but from the you know the different yeah different one you know let's say would-be end users and you know it's kind of interesting to get all this different perspective from people
and you know and other people get perspectives that they don't want to hear about and I think that that kind of segues into the first let's say set of stories I want to talk about and that's our pals over there in Iran.
No you know I don't know I don't want to make it a political show but you know it's a little unstable over there in my eyes or my estimation but you know one of the stories that we kind of talked about things being a little let's say kept on the down low is the the story where they were the Iranian Air Force was shooting at the one of our drones and you know I find that kind of interesting but again
you know after the gift the RQ-170 we gave them and you know I would say that you know we are monitoring the situation no matter what anyone says or what the rhetoric is or you know what they're talking they want energy over there and you know we're talking about they're not making a nuclear device and everything's good and it's calm and the sanctions and we got them worked over and they can't do
anything I'm not buying no I'm just not buying on that one.
You know those people have been around for millennia and they're not they're not immigrant people by any stretch of the imagination even though I think sometimes the United States kind of looks at them as a third world country but they do have technology and they do have the technology to be able to put together a centrifuge and to be able to refine their uranium and if they have that sort of technology it would make sense that
you know flying an unmanned aircraft of course after the gift we made it a lot easier but unmanned aircraft are you know really you know pretty basic flying machines and they do have an air force and they do have people that can fly you know sophisticated aircraft so it's no stretch for them to come up with their own and we've we've been suspicious that you know much like the centrifuges that they probably most certainly have they've probably got some fairly sophisticated unmanned aircraft that have some range on them
I mean when I say sophisticated it may it may not have you know a navigation system that is good to within two centimeters but if you're within 66 feet or 20 meters with a GPS you're pretty close with the with a electro-optical imaging system you can pick things up and here we find out today or not today but yesterday I read where they have been spying on the Israelis I'm shocked and where are the
Israelis?
You know one of the things that we have been kind of kept on the back burner we haven't talked about much is UA countermeasures. Yes well I know that's a hot subject but you know even the on the Iranian subject you know they've been supplying Hezbollah and I always forget the other group over there besides Hezbollah but you know they've been supplying those Hamas thank you I knew it started with an H
you know with drones for years and you know it's kind of funny you know we've got this oh you know where we control the skies with the drones and it's all great and yada yada yada which isn't really true but I do think one thing I wanted to hit on this is I think is even the the layperson or newcomer to this industry I think you could read that article and you it could deduce or it is fair to say that
you could pick out capabilities system capabilities reading that article you agree disagree James?
No I agree completely yeah I know it's it's kind of weird it's thinly veiled you know the details are in there and you can say well I guess this can do this or that or whatever else but yeah I don't really think the sanctions are working you know last week on the SUAS news website we ran a story you know that you know the Iranians are announcing that they have advanced drone technology and so you know
I think we were far out of the curve on that one and last year we did the story on the Iranian student competition and I don't know if you remember that Gene but I remember looking at the let's say that the the test matrix are outlined for that competition and I was pretty impressed especially for a country that's supposedly just crippled by sanctions I was a little taken aback comments well I can certainly attest to the fact that of course
you know like a good web geek I do have a web snoop on my home page and I can see where people are coming from all over the world and there has been no shortage of Iranian visits on the web page and some others that we'll get into a little later in the broadcast even more significantly but and more blatant because I certainly agree that these guys are capable of you know looking at something and saying
you know hey we can do that and my opinion is is that the more we squeeze them with the and I kind of kind of embargo them and cut them off from the world the harder they're going to push back and one of these times they're going to push back pretty hard and it may be with the product of one of those centrifuges that they say they don't have right and you know I think we're playing a dangerous game
but you know whatever the the other thing I wanted to talk about was that that Coker one VTOL drone that's also a story on the SUAS news and you know that was another thing you know some some people think oh well you know these guys they're just blowing smoke and those are photoshopped photos and you know they don't have those capabilities and yada yada yada you know the Coker one I've seen this on RC groups this this kind of design here
you know going back to you know the inner web but the one thing that I do have to mention is I'm not really buying this thing that like these these are photoshopped and they don't know what they're doing and they don't know how to make this stuff I'm not buying that because you know you read again you read the details of the story and they'll talk about limitations of altitude and temperature which to me lend credibility to these stories
and if it was just made up and and it didn't really fly or whatever else I don't think they would add these these details to the story and maybe I'm gullible what do you think I you know I'll have to disagree with you a little bit there because the the the the Persians in the that whole area over there the Iraqis the Iranians and everything they've been known to embellish the truth just a little bit
you know it's like you know chemical Ali over there going you know what war there's no war here and the bombs are dropping around and you know we're in complete control I think the the Iranians are smart enough again that even though they may not have all the technical expertise they need to understand it they know how to read the web and all these capabilities that you see the the ceilings the limitations the fuel capacities the endurance
and stuff like that are all available on the web from our website so they they know that that's required they know that you know if they have anybody within the aviation experience with you that you we're going to have to start putting these things and using these buzzwords to make sure we look smart enough to do so so I think that they could be embellishing the truth and I think there's there's one very famous picture of a half a dozen missiles being fired at once that was obviously photoshopped here a while back
I think it was last year when they did an exercise that's true that's true something to take into consideration but you know here again though okay so they photoshopped in a couple extra missiles they fired three instead of six they still fired great right well and I agree I mean you know maybe uh there's some embellishing going on there we have to definitely keep an open mind and be objective about that
but I I do think that there is there's there's kernels of truth in there and maybe I am gullible I don't know but again the competitions and whatever else that we're seeing I do think that there is real capability there but I think we're ignoring it but again that's me and it's the same you know I'm sorry go ahead no I'm just saying there is definitely a capability there no matter what anybody wants to say it may not be as sufficiently advanced
but the capability exists and they're going to use it in this story right there they are and you know it's the uh it's again you know the different models I think of uh you know having something that's really high tech and cost 150 million dollars or having something that's maybe a couple of rungs below uh high tech but still very uh let's say robust usable and something that costs ten thousand dollars
and we're seeing a lot of that even in our country and you know kind of like you alluded to too you know you may not be down to the two centimeters but it may be two meters or whatever is that good enough I think that's probably going to be good enough you know um so we'll see but I mean that also segues into the next one which is the china thing and I don't know if you saw that the uh shinlong the divine dragon robotics police plane
you know which looks a lot like what we're working on and you know I don't think it's a big deal and I you know I just I think it shows again that uh these these other countries and the proliferation of the technology and the internet and all the rest of that are coming on strong with the technology so uh you know things to work or look at and um you know maybe uh time to reflect on what the rest of the world is doing with unmanned systems
you know um something to think about I know some of most of their systems I mean I don't know they got the stealth plane they're working on the rocket plane they got unmanned aircraft uh coming on strong I mean I'm sure you've seen those stories well you know Patrick China has been one of the best replication societies since the turn of the century they don't do a significant amount of breakthrough technology or breakthrough research although that they even that is starting to change
but they have always been absolutely good at getting an original and copying it and doing it very cheaply now granted some of the first iterations they're a little rough and not too good but again we I say we the United States has gone in and showed them how to improve their production processes how to improve their fit and finish and I think that we're starting to see some of that come out now I would agree with that
and I think we're gonna see more of that as time goes by um again you know they're heavy into the unmanned I think the unmanned thing it's funny you know even if we're on LinkedIn people were talking about you know what's better the manned or the unmanned ISR assets and I definitely think like even if you flash back to the gift you know the gift went down in Iran and yes it was kind of an embarrassment whatever else again if there was a manned aircraft that went down we'd have another Gary Powers deal
you know yeah and that's a whole international incident so you know I really think it's here to stay and you know how long is it before we have you know see you know Chinese equivalents of the global hawk or predator flying you know outside of our airspace what do you think on that I would not be a bit surprised I think Patrick uh it was you that found the website a Chinese website I think it was almost two years ago that had a photo gallery of all of the aircraft that they had been copying
and it was quite an extensive gallery and I think we saw the shadow in there we saw you know several smaller aircraft and several larger aircraft and at the recent show the recent model show that they had there even though they kind of roll unmanned aircraft into their RC end of it there was a very very sophisticated uh looking anyway unmanned aircraft that was about uh I think a three meter wing span it was bright orange if
you recall and it was a flying wing um yeah that was a pretty uh the pretty interesting pictorial and I think yeah right about that time I found that actually it might even been even earlier than that because uh you know that was kind of what prompted me to um you know make the statement about the thousand dollar Chinese UAV um but you know again I think that's going to be a lot cheaper and we'll talk about that too further down the uh
and the podcast hopefully we don't run out of time it always surprises me and I guess it's a good uh segue to into the next um the next topic I wanted to talk about um you know and then that's the podcast series and we ran a story on the seos news and it was pretty funny you know we uh we hit 100 000 downloads since like middle of may which I was pretty impressed with you know and I know we talked about it was like wow
you know I had no idea that this was going to happen I figured oh you know we had 500 downloads a week and you know the hardcore will want to listen and you know yada yada but uh totally blew me away and then you know by the time the story got out we had a you know 120 000 downloads before it hit the street your your feelings on the podcast success yeah that's been a real surprise in my house too
I mean we're just sitting here basically talking about stuff that we do pretty much every day uh and again I think it reflects that there is a base out there that really wants to see and hear what's going on and how they're being used I think the live series that we did with the fly amp which I believe that that's now the number one show that so far it is with 21 804 downloads as of this morning the fly in that was the most listed show
and you know it's it's unfortunate I know we tried to do a few one last week with uh with the rest of the international folks and the timing was just bad on that one and again we missed this week because we were out flying the uh the super bats all week and uh I really wanted to get a show on then but uh fortunately with the the weather conditions the way they were and us having to hustle through
and stay on the ball so to speak we didn't really get to do that but that you know that just shows you that there are a lot of folks out there that that want to hear this they want to be able to land on something that is concrete and that is not rumor and propaganda oh I totally concur with that and I know yeah the last show was kind of rough um you know I'm out here at white sands missile range still for nie 13.1
and I'm not going to go into a lot of details about that because uh for personal reasons plus I don't want to um you know there's an opsec thing going and you know we are doing this future warfare thing out here and experiments and whatever and I will say though if you want to learn more about the nie 13.1 you can go to the army times website you can go to defense news and several other outlets and
you know that stuff has all gone through and been okayed for release so I think we ran a story about the uh the shadows the improvements on the shadows and and and them flying around at nie um so I don't really want to say anything personal because I don't want to or you know I don't want to really get caught up in any of that but I will say the information's out there and you can go ahead and and uh google nie 13.1
and there's a bunch of stories out there that have been approved you can see what we're doing um so the last show I did I was actually in a we have a vehicle that has satellite capability and all the rest of that and I tried to soldier through I know the audio was rough but you know that's that kind of comes with the territory of these shows coming out of the field you know and that's what you get when we're doing this
and even like you're saying was you know trying to do one last week and you guys were flying the super bats and I'm out here and the comms are bad I'm in and out of comms and and you know my schedule is really uh hectic I'm doing that 12 and 14 hour days seven days a week a little tired a little hard to get things done but I think we've soldiered through and I did I did enjoy the show uh from that that international SAR SAR thing
and it sounded like that really went real successful what was you got any more takeaway on that Gene?
Yeah as a matter of fact I did get a couple of emails back from the guys out there and uh the the trainer the head trainer out there who was going back to England this week uh wanted to take back with him all the materials obviously that I brought through it and would like to start his own SAR training using unmanned aircraft over there in the UK which is obviously very encouraging because they can actually fly over there in the UK as long as they get their licenses
and their fees paid and I think that's just a fantastic deal if we can you know extend our reach to the UK through this program I think it's an excellent opportunity for us for SUS news I know that Chris Onions will report back to us and give us some updates and I think it's just going to be a fantastic thing to do and a lot of that came from us being able to approach them from SUS news in the podcast because they do want to be involved
and do want to show what they are capable of and what they can do as well so it was perfect it was perfect for us.
Well in another news story that I mean we didn't cover it at SUS news but since that show you know and I want to talk about it it's uh you know we were doing SAR we're talking about using small unmanned aircraft a flangeable unmanned aircraft and since that time of that show that we had a tragedy where actually they were doing SAR from a helicopter and I'm sure you heard that story and it's power lines
and then and it ended in a tragedy it's really too bad. That's correct that was in Georgia and they lost you know two good troopers there and they were searching for the the child that was missing.
And tragedy. That's a part of the the playing field that we have when we go out and do that sort of thing and the risks are known but there are also ways to mitigate those risks and we have a way we're just not able to bring it to bear and that's that's frustrating it's very frustrating for me especially when I've flown many missions where the unmanned asset very wisely pulled off and said we can't fly there
and we came in and said we can and we've done so we've done so successfully. Right and I you know I didn't I didn't read that other story that we're running today which HAI which is Helicopter Association International had talked or wrote a letter endorsement to the FAA active administrator about you know getting on with the the NAS integration process for unmanned aircraft systems.
You know the HAI great bunch of guys I'm an associate member of that organization they're you know down to down to earth organization I will say that it's kind of funny my buddy over there Dave York great guy and I went to their show a couple years ago and there's this guy comes up and he's the I guess the head of the I think it was the guys that fly for hospitals or whatever and Dave walks up and he's like hey
I want to introduce you to this guy he says this is Patrick Egan he wants to fly unmanned aircraft in your airspace and walks off and he's holding the bag with this guy who's you know he's a Vietnam bad and he's like what what do you want to do oh you're trying to kill us blah blah blah and oh no no no no no I gotta go through and explain all of this again but it was pretty funny he's a good guy Dave York's a good guy HAI is a good organization they were even kind enough to host one of the small UAS ARC meetings
and a good bunch of people and they have a great show if you're into helicopters man it's a wall to wall helicopters I went to their show I forget what year that was I think it was 2009 it was in Anaheim and you know of course we're going to bring all these helicopters in and they're just coming in one after the other landing in the parking lot but it was it was pretty impressive pretty impressive stuff
but even then I think they could kind of see the value and and there are certain instances you know again it's another tool in the toolbox I'm not saying that you know manned helicopters will have no place in the future and I think you would agree with that notion but I don't want to speak for you it's very unlikely Patrick that an unmanned asset of any sort is going to be flying into a canyon or up to a mountain to pluck a stranded climber off of the hill very very unlikely that that's going to happen anytime soon it could I'm not saying it won't
but right now that's not going to happen however we could keep that helicopter out of those rotors that the rotor wash and the turbulence that goes on in the canyons while we are looking for the individual which greatly reduces their risk well and you know I would I would agree so there's definitely could even work in conjunction and I think other people are starting to see that I think kind of that boogie man thing is going away some of that apprehension is dying off the privacy thing is
you know we're going to still work that I still think that's ridiculous I mean I don't even get it man I mean more and more stories you know these cities and municipalities are going to be putting cameras on armored cars and driving them around and there's cameras everywhere I mean on the buses on the trains you know I really think it's kind of a red herring but maybe it's it's easy to you know paint the target on unmanned aircraft because people are afraid of the technology
you know thinking you're going to get the skynet deal from the terminator I don't know still got to get out there and work that one and I would like to make mention again for our listeners the house bill that you should look for on that is house bill 6199 to that bill was authored by a congressman Ted Ho of Houston, Texas.
So watch that one very closely it was indicated that it was a placeholder it wasn't a complete law but it was a placeholder so that they could fill in privacy issues which is very much like Nancy Pelosi said we need to pass this law so we can see what's in it I don't particularly like that way of legislation so we need to watch that very closely and as it develops you need to let your elected officials know what
you think about it. Yes and you know on another note I will I want to say you know I did that issue was in this month's issue of Congressional Quarterly there was an article about that and it's talking about the uh and you know where would I get a copy of Congressional Quarterly I'm not a subscriber but yeah you have these great rugs you know when you're like a member of Congress it's the circular rug
and it you know talks you know Congress blah blah blah I'd like to get one of those I guess you got to be a member of Congress so you know vote for me next time anyway right the you know this article is pretty telling a lot of the issues that we're talking about here a lot of what you were talking about and but I thought it was kind of funny it's a it's the cover story okay uh fear of prying um you know
and the the sub um the subtitle on that is uh thanks to Congress drones could be proliferating soon in America's skies that prospect has sparked fears about privacy and safety and it goes on and on and you know I'm seeing some uh photos from a uvsi yeah they got it and you know all the rest of the stuff where you get in the uh you know they they range in size from the 16,000 pound Avenger to the Nano Hummingbird made by
you know who yada yada 4.4 pounds 55 pounds you know all the same stuff all the same players all the same stuff that we hear and you know and the fleet of domestic drones could reach 30,000 by 2030 which those numbers were pulled out of the sky basically for 20 where those numbers came from you know the fa says that we don't we didn't come up with those numbers but actually numbers were came up with for the nprm process for the small uas arc
and people were asked and queried you know how many drones do you think they're going to be in the sky by such and such time and you know these these milestone dates yada yada yada which were almost impossible to answer as far as I was concerned as you have a situation where it's very regulatory dependent and I know that we've talked about this but I think those numbers for 2030 are low I think the 30,000 number is extremely low
but again you know if we're looking at the regulation that is proposed to come out in the 400 feet 1500 feet laterally and all the draconian stuff that as far as I'm concerned is being tossed about in the astm f38 thing maybe it will be 30,000 you know I think again if the fa chemical was something that was common sense I think that number would be could be 10 times that number your thought I agree completely with that assessment that
I think that they are already it's a nascent industry anyway but I think there are a whole slew of guys out there and gals that have the basis they have it right now it's sitting in their garage they've got an aircraft they can actually fly it out of line of sight and they can retrieve it and they've done so successfully and if there was some common sense rule put in place we would see those guys get out
I think we would see a flood of them come out they would start to be start doing more commercial operations you'd see but they would be very very small footprint operations right box doctors with a video camera and they go up 100 feet and they stay up there for five minutes and come right down well that counts as a flight and there's one of the 30,000 that's in the air at any given time right I agree
and I do think that you know this is an industry that could you know we talk about it all the time professional wages yada yada ad nauseam the same thing you know I think with the numbers for people that are flying let's say recreational RC aircraft yeah I've heard estimates I've heard estimates especially from the AMA that really there's only about 5,000 RC flyers besides those in the AMA and I was just really
I agree totally with that that's that my friend is that's that's not even I don't even it doesn't even make sense to me I mean since the electron or electric revolution as I like to call it there's hundreds of thousands of people flying RC aircraft that are not AMA members that I have to say that that's kind of the appeal you don't have to go to the sites you know you don't have to wait you don't have to
you know sit there and get the packing order and all the rest of that I think it's just opened it up to hundreds of thousands of people and I think everybody's in denial and then that kind of you know feeds into the next story you know the I did want to talk about the 3D robotics and you probably saw that news story on the sus news website indeed we've known our little buddy Chris there for a while haven't we yeah
and you know he was doing the Wired magazine thing and you know the last time I met with him in June I really I was telling him my guy you know my hats off to you you know I was actually there with Davidson from the AUVSI foundation which is doing robo nation now which I gave him some free advice and I think he took it for what it was worth but I think if you know you're going to really do you know I'm going to do a high tech robotics website
I think you need to have a presence in Silicon Valley that was my advice I mean you know Washington or Virginia is great but if you're going to do that and you really want to come out as you know we're the high tech robotics people you're going to have to have a presence at Silicon Valley but that's a discussion for another time anyway we met with Chris Anderson we went to Wired magazine we got the tour
I think we discussed it on the podcast and I told Chris you know my hat's really off to you you know you never really used Wired magazine to promote your products or your company or yada yada you know subsequently there was I think a 10 page article on drones that came out of that but whatever you know he's leaving that needs you're going to do the three robot robotics thing and you know I don't know I'm
you know one hand that's like good on you you're making some money you're doing some stuff I know there was there were certain things he was a little uncomfortable about and they have a facility in te in Mexico where they manufacture and you know he expressed he's like I would love to have done that in the United States and create the jobs here hey but the reason he didn't was ITAR and you know most people out there here's some more we're wheeling out the ore cart some more gold for
you is you know the ITAR thing is a retroactive thing at one point you may say oh you know I go to the state department I want to sell these widgets here to people on the internet and whatever and they can make a determination and say okay great it's not controlled technology have a nice day go nuts you know sell away and then they could come back five years later and go you know what we decide that's controlled technology
and then you're responsible for finding and securing all of those products that you sold over the years or getting a heavy fine or 11 worth yada yada not a lot of fun so you know he did he did say well you know I had to move to Mexico I wish I could have been here doing it I will say you know I mean it from the answer from my own perspective to say wow you know there's five million dollars worth of funding for a amateur company it seems like a lot of bread
I mean and people are wow five million is a lot of money I mean I interviewed for another consulting job in Silicon Valley with another company which is you know I think we've talked about some of these frustrations in the past but you know talking to them about what they were going to need to do and regulation and they have this whole business plan worked out where they were going to be flying and it was going to be
you know 10 cents a kilometer was going to be their cost yada yada and on and on and I'm like okay well that's nice but the mission you want to do is not really something we can do in this regulatory climate it's going to be hard to find funding oh no we got you know 10 15 million dollars worth of funding already you know so the people are jumping in I think that's what we can deduce from this and the people are jumping in with rail money
and this is another you know as you're sifting around in the or cart you know I got to say these numbers are realistic if you want to be in this game and you want to be poised to be ready for the regulation to come out which I think most people are thinking is going to probably come out next year or no later than 2015 but I think if you really think you're going to be poised to be in this business
and be a manufacturer I think those are real numbers Gene go ahead I believe two years you're going to have to hang on at least two years you know we've been playing this game since 2007 and we've said that at that point it could have been two years easily until the regulation showed up then we said five years and we have surpassed five years but at least we have some glimmer of hope I think you're going to have to have two more years as a manufacturer
and you have to have a proven mature product to start seeing RLI in two years and whatever it takes to get there it's going to be an expensive proposition but it will pay off oh I agree with that I mean you know you look at the Parrot Drone's perfect example they've sold I don't even know tens of thousands of those things you know I have one waiting at home the new generation this is the parent people send it to me to review for the shed which was another story
I wanted to get to but you know it's a great thing you know I think it's good I do think that you know there are going to be some issues especially you know with this type of business and technology you are hitting you know some good points most people that come in and invest on something with that kind of money are not willing to wait eight quarters ten quarters twelve quarters for an ROI you know
and so I think that's going to be difficult another thing I think is going to be difficult is and we've talked about this in this series and I think one of them is some legal considerations for the driverless car wasn't really one of the more popular shows which is kind of interesting to me because there's a lot of let's say overlay between the technologies it's still unmanned it's still going to be commercial there's going to be some issues
and you should be ready for them and I think that those are going to crop up as issues for any any company that's product is getting used commercially do you agree with that I agree completely and I do want to stress that that's in a civil market not DOD here anything like that that's my prediction is based on being able to use unmanned aircraft commercially in a civilian market right I agree with that
and I'm actually happy that you went by back and kind of you know qualified that because people might misunderstand that but I agree with you on that you know it depends on the price points I'm talking to people they're coming out of the woodwork you know I've got this quadcopter I'm selling it like hotcakes I got this coming out it's going to do this blah blah blah I don't really think people understand the nuances again it's kind of frustrating on the consulting side when people want to pick your brain
you kind of tell them hey you know this is kind of what I do for a living you want to you know get into this business and talk to people up front I don't know it it is kind of funny how people are looking at that that 3d robotic story I've had people call up and and you know vent some frustration and kind of feel like Chris might be cutting some corners and people that have been in it for a long time
and have been working this issue are a little resentful I don't know man everybody has their own feelings on all these stories for you to kind of figure it out I think we went through a lot of stuff today again 45 minutes you know whizzed right by and we didn't get to all the stories that I wanted to talk about it happens every week it just it just blows me away I can't believe it I get down to the two minute warning
and I'm like oh Jesus it's over you know but we've got about another 12 seconds here Gene I'd like to thank you again for trying to do some more field work we've got some exciting stuff coming up have everybody stay tuned because we're going to be keeping all of this rolling that sounds good see you next week buddy okay goodbye