A couple of years ago, the OppiKoppi festival started tinkering with the idea of beer delivery by drone. What a time to be alive!
Today, the advancements and innovation in technology have allowed companies such as Amazon to utilize drones in a number of new and exciting ways. It’s not just a run-of-the-mill retail delivery service anymore. You don’t even need a viable address - only the location sent via your smartphone.
Sure, a drone delivering that DVD boxset you ordered might crash into your house and catch fire, but in most cases it’s a risk worth taking.
Think of all the good that the technology could do in the event of an emergency, in hard-to-access locations. In Rwanda, for example, drones can circumvent all the rough terrain to deliver blood samples to hospitals.
Of course, there are many other uses for drones. South Africa is slowly beginning to embrace this technology, and as recently as this week, it has been suggested that the City of Cape Town may become the first municipality in the country to utilize drone technology in the fight against crime. A number of private security estates around South Africa are already using drones to patrol their perimeters, and of course, following the recent mayhem in Johannesburg CBD, ABSA has reached advanced discussions around the implementation of drone technology to fight crime in the area.
Private drone enthusiasts, though, still face a number of problems. Depending on whether you’d like to get one for commercial or personal purposes, you may have to acquire a couple of licenses first. And then, of course, this kind of high-tech gadgetry can come at a hefty price.
Somewhere in the world, right now, there’s a drone on autopilot.
The owner will never see it again.
So! Expensive machines are worth insuring, but it gets a little tricky.