Drones

I'm just trying to nail down the reasons for the opposition - is it to do with noise and privacy or concerns about obesity/people's choices? It keeps changing.

Is the privacy concern because of the low res camera?

From what I know the camera is only turned on when the drone is lowered to make the delivery. There is no recording. And the underpaid operator is highly unlikely to give even one hoot what is happening in neighbouring gardens.

It's basically more shite in a world that is ridiculously and unsuistainable over consuming.

In the piece on RTE News (or maybe it was Prime Time) they showed an operator doing a drop. You could see that the resolution wasn't great.

I've previously suggested to those that are suspicious about the camera that they contact Manna and ask to view a delivery from the control room. That should confirm or disprove the suspicions.

I agree that a middle ground about routes should be possible - use main roads for much of a journey before cutting in to the destination. I don't know if anyone has made that suggestion to Manna.

You never know until you ask. Maybe email their Data Protection Officer - dpo@manna.aero

As for the camera, of course the company (not the lowly operator) can choose camera type. The system may not allow the camera to be turned on until it gets to destination.

You could use data protection legislation to request data they have on you, and report them to the Data Protection Commission if you think that they are lying.

Good coffee is hard to make at home. You need a good machine, a good grinder, fresh beans. Not trivial.

That said, if you're not fussy, you'd be happy with what you get from most coffee shops.

Hot stuff

Knocked it out of the park with that one.

I’m saying it shouldn’t be up to drone operators to decide what they can and cannot do when it comes to privacy.

We’ve only their word that the camera is low res, we have no idea what they film and we’ve no idea what they plan to do with their cameras in the future. We have no idea what an individual employee can see while the drone is hovering, no idea what gets stored in their servers. That is unacceptable.

No one should have a blank cheque to invade anyone’s privacy but that’s exactly what Manna have right now. If - as we're told - drones are here to stay and we have to just suck it up, then they need to be properly regulated and controlled. I don’t think that’s unreasonable.

It's on the Manna website right now that a drone flying past cannot be distinguished from background noise. That is an absolute barefaced lie, even you must concede that, so the question arises, can we trust anything else they're saying?

There's no difference - it's all the same argument.

What they can see on the camera, what they do with the images, how loud the drone is, where they fly, what hours they can operate, how low they fly, whether they take any account of complaints… it's all up to them to decide.

Anyone who thinks any private company can be trusted to do the right thing in those circumstances, well, I'd question where they've been the last few years.

They're already playing it fast and loose with planning permission for their bases, a system which is long established in black and white law. I think it's extremely naive to think they're on the level when it comes to everything else.

I literally said none of that.

I am absolutely baffled as to what your angle is here.

But some of things you're inferring are pretty serious. Would warrant a police raid and investigation of their computers.

Again, I'm baffled as to what your point is here and I'm even more confused by your aggressive and relentless shilling for these guys. I didn't accuse them of anything. I definitely didn't "infer" anything, I think you mean "imply" - it's you who is inferring things. Look it up.

But the point stands, it's never a good idea for any business to be completely self-regulating when it affects the wider community.

Quite how you read that I think regulation is important and turned it into OH THEY'RE FLYING ALL NIGHT AND SPYING ON YOUR KIDS ARE THEY?! is a mystery to me.

I think there's a few types.

It's daft to be getting a burger flown to you. And it gets annoying if there's too many overhead as it sounds like a lawnmower either in your garden or down the street.

And OMG they are spying on us and theres drones every 5 mins and it's making my ears bleed it's louder than a jet engine.

I can't see the business model of drones delivering burgers. Its not feeding any useful technology into saving people on mountains or delivering medical or essential supplies in remote or crisis situations.

But there are protest groups now and politicians love a good emotive issue like this. It's days are numbered.

Can I add a third?

3. They're not too bad at the moment but if the planned expansions in service happen, it's going to become a big problem if left entirely up to the operators to manage, so now is the time to get some controls in place.