When will the drones change cycling as we know it?

[jens_attacks]

yea yea those things one of your friends has and brags about them all day long. also those which bomb the hell out of the terrorists too in the desert.

this is the future so it will happen. when?no freaking clue. but the dangerous convoy of the cars will disappear from the back of the peloton that's for sure. and also the filming will be from drones and not motos and helis. no more drafting for dumoulin, no more helicopter winds for moser,no more sticky bottle too(they should be programmed to release the bottle in max 4 sec to the rider). of course also no more stupid dangerous descents, no more giancarlo ferretti crashed in a ravine with the car
no more record ascents for the sprinters on etna also?hehehe

when do you think it will happen? will the peloton accept it or not? the technology for drones to fly some bikes and wheels(the MAVIC drone of course) should be already available? the center of command and the big autonomy of the drones not so much i guess....probably they can make them to run on nuclear energy in the future.

no more venga venga from manolo saiz? i guess there will be holograms of the directeur sportifs anyway appearing from some screen outside the drones.

let your imagination fly. the vuelta is still one week away.

 

[Pentacycle]

Drones performing doping controls, and spying on everything the riders do all day. Except in races where you want the riders to fly of course.
Maybe they can also be easily programmed to provide better TV commentary than the current humanoid generation.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

considerable more potential than the on bike cam stuff...

 

[King Boonen]

They can't even get feed from a proper camera on a motorbike to work half the time it seems. I think drones are a while off yet. Would be very cool though.

 

[jens_attacks]

there were some images from a drone in sibiu tour this year. pretty cool
i guess in 100 years this will happen. of course probably all of us, ash or bones by then.only papy horner will live this moment.
mechanicals will take only seconds i think if those will still happen. i suspect that the medicine and science will go so far that the riders won't even need water or food during a 300 kms race at all. but probably this is better to discuss in a future thread in the clinic, about the soon to happen, genetic wonders cyclists and truly bionic men.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

no more dangerous descends? Doubt that. In bad conditions riders often try to follow the red braking lights of moto's to determine when a corner is coming up.. without them, they are downhilling blind (in bad conditions)

 

[jens_attacks]

well maybe a drone can still go ahead and even show the graphic of the corner, no problem. many times, the motos even slowed down the riders anyway. this is not a big problem, the riders descending on their own
and descending like a mad man between cars to catch the front group is almost suicidal nowadays to be honest.
plus i guess on the ravines of climbs like aubisque and bonette there can be drones placed to catch the riders if they fall into the cliff. but now we're going full SF

 

[senatorrick]

I'm going to say before what's his name says it figure out who that is sure you can but yeah how many sprinters will be hanging on to make it over the mountains drone doping a thing of the future

 

[icefire]

What's the typical autonomy of a drone before recharging/refueling? 15mins?

 

[William H]

Drones can't change wheels

 

[myrideissteelerthanyours]

What's the typical autonomy of a drone before recharging/refueling? 15mins?

15 minutes for the cheap plastic kind that costs under $100USD

Solar powered gliders are coming soon that are intended to stay in the air indefinitely.

This thread is silly we've already got skyborgs and cancellara's electric assist bikes and whatnot. What I would like to see though is some kind of wheat thresher that can be customized to drive ahead of the peloton and mulch up spectators that stand in the road.

 

[SafeBet]

Police drones to keep fans off the riders on climbs. No more running alongside riders or pulling some crazy trick to go on tv, drones are watching you.

 

[jens_attacks]

What's the typical autonomy of a drone before recharging/refueling? 15mins?

the civilian ones, yes. don't know about military ones though

and yep William i know, but there weren't robots making cars from beginning to the end in 1900 either

i agree about the drones keeping crazy fans maybe them should use some kind of grenades, sedative gases too? imagine zoncolan without those alpini hand in hand in last km lol

there were many accidents with convoy cars killing/injuring people. i definitely think the drones will be way safer.
i see many are optimists,our lifetime hehehe. depends on how much we still got left, can't see this happening in 50 years though, maybe just experimental

anyway, the robots are the future. humans not so fortunately.

 

[SafeBet]

Imagine drones dressed as alpini and drinking as much beer as alpini. And then police drones have to fine them for Flying Under Influence

 

[Coat-O]

Drones are overrated, I think. By that time we will have robots, microchips, "intelligent" roads, autonomous cars, artificial soigneurs, self-repairing wheels.

 

[SKSemtex]

Drones are overrated, I think. By that time we will have robots, microchips, "intelligent" roads, autonomous cars, artificial soigneurs, self-repairing wheels.

I do not think they are overated. For me they are big part of near future of cycling. They can considerably decrease the costs of heli and motocameras.
With GPS chips on each rider and all these new technologies we can get soon completly new experiances from the peloton, especially in mountain stages when the peloton is split to several groups.

It is just need somebody who is open to new technologies.

I still can not understand why riders do not have the chips so we have the immediate information and results. (top speed, acceleration, watts ...etc) It costs nothing today.

 

[hfer07]

Only see their potential as far as broadcasting backup-not as an entire take over-they need to be field tested & most of all for "safety" matters, as far as crashing or being manipulated erroneously.

Even Amazon with his "master plan" of drones delivery system in the works, still 10 years away, so I have my reservations for road racing too..

 

[Netserk]

In 100 years rich people will be able to live until they are 150 at least, so that makes the 2nd option redundant as I will live in 100 years as well then

 

[SeriousSam]

At the end of time when Lance makes his inevitable comeback to cycling with a drone as his EPO supplying Motoman MK 2.0.

 

[jens_attacks]

In 100 years rich people will be able to live until they are 150 at least, so that makes the 2nd option redundant as I will live in 100 years as well then

don't forget to bump this thread in 2154 or whatever.

drones filming the robots on the bike wow that would be cool

 

[yespatterns]

Hey, Phil and paul drone enough as is. Wait, you were talking about the flying drones...?

 

[mihhint]

Drones will eventually replace helicopters in biggest races to get the above shots, I think there is no doubt in that. I guess it depends on whenever it gets cheaper to rent a drone + operator than to rent a helicopter + pilot + cameraman. My guess is in next 25 years. The technology is there already today, it just depends on legislation of UAVs, how long it will take for them to work them out and then how long it will take for it all to commercialize and get cheaper.

By 2040 though, I think drones should replace helicopter+cameraman combos when it comes to air filming different events like news happenings and biggest sporting events etc, it just makes too much sense not to happen, filming drone can be just so much smaller and efficient than the large loud helicopter with 2 people working on it.