You can now buy a flame-throwing robot dog for under $10,000

jeffw@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 548 points –
You can now buy a flame-throwing robot dog for under $10,000
arstechnica.com
185

Also: Which 2 states are the sane ones where this would be illegal?

Edit: California and Maryland. And you can have one in California, if you get a special permit.

Because. Also, flamethrower aren't considered weapons by the government, so the only states that limits you from buying one is California and Ohio and Maryland banned them.

Ohio has a ban too? The company that makes these is based in Ohio lol

Not a ban, a restriction. Like California, you need a permit. Sorry if I made that confusing.

Ok new life goal. Be that guy at the DMV with a permit for a flamethrower arguing with the civil servant that "because it is cool" is a valid reason

In most if not all states, if you have an AAA membership, you can do your DMV stuff at AAA offices and dodge the DMV entirely. The lines are way better.

In my area, the DMV is actually quite pleasant. I've had to go like 2-3x ever? And each time was a 15 min adventure:

  • registered my car from out of state
  • bought a car from a local private seller - I brought them with me to finalize the transfer
  • bought a car from an out of state private seller (my brother), just brought the signed title

Or emissions checks can be submitted at the check station for $8 or filed online for free, so there's no reason for most people to go to the DMV. In fact, most other stuff can be done online too.

It honestly takes longer for me to get there (like 15 min drive) than to actually get my business sorted. It's one of the better run agencies in the state.

That said, the DOL division sucks. We don't even require in person renewals, but the two times I had to go sucked (when I first moved here, and for my wife to get her license transferred). It's a much smaller office with far more people waiting.

I have a DMV that's never busy around me too, at the cost of being further out of my way (even more so now that I've moved even farther from it). But it's worth being able to walk in and go right to a counter (without an appointment even!) instead of waiting 8+ fucking hours starting at 5am like the one in my actual city.

I've never made an appointment for the DMV, that's just bananas. I just walk in, grab a number, then my name is called within a few minutes. It takes longer to get there (like 15-20 min) than to finish my business there.

I still don't like going because it's an hour out of my way, but that also applies to most stores.

flamethrower aren't considered weapons by the government

Considered firearms.

No they're not. The ATF does not consider flamethrower a firearm and there exists no country wide law about flamethrower, and by law, even a felon can own a fully working flamethrower.

Right. I'm saying that you wanted to use the term "firearm", not "weapon".

Ok how the hell did Ohio limit flamethrowers? We’re the Florida of the north

California allows roofers to have flamethrowers. They use them for curing something in the roofing tiles(? I don't know the proper term for those things. They're basically cardboard covered in tar and gravel, possibly a thin layer of asphalt?).

It was a bit unnerving the first few times I heard the roofers doing their thing.

They're called shingles, asphalt shingles being the most common in most parts of the US because they're relatively inexpensive.

No, the question is why not?

The next question is whether they can stick a couple chemical tanks with variable-flow valves on that thing to inject into the stream so that they can get RGB flames.

Where's the robot to clean up the flaming, decapitated gopher carcasses off my lawn?

They have an app for that now. It's like Uber but somehow even treats their "contractors" in a worse fashion. It's called Flameaway.

Well now I'm definitely going to have to save up $10,000 for a flame-throwing robot dog.

How else am I going to protect myself from all the flame-throwing robot dogs?

The only defense against a bad guy with a flame throwing robot dog, is a good guy with a flame throwing robot dog

What about a neutral girl with a flame throwing robot dog?

Believe it or not, a chaotic neutral or lawful good girl with a flame throwing robot dog. There are some nuances if you’re using Pathfinder.

How else am I going to protect myself from all the flame-throwing robot dogs?

Build a tesla coil for $100.

What if their flame thrower range is longer than the range of my Tesla coil?

Also, how will I get my revenge?

Also, how will I get my revenge?

With a fire-extinguisher robot dog?

I can't kill my neighbor who sent the flamethrower robot dog to my house with a fire extinguisher robot dog! Not without plausible deniability anyway.

A 5 minute thing blown up to a 50 minutes action sequence with cars drawing circles in the desert and a helicopter filming infrared and tüdelü, all in 10x repeat, is a sad new high for me.

But of course someone tested that already.

Well...That's TV shows for you.
But even better: Between each repeat would be an ad break. :)
At least we don't have that (premium and/or ad blocker) on youtube...

What if their flame thrower range is longer than the range of my Tesla coil?

Put your Tesla coil on a long boom. Worked for pikemen.

The nice part of that is that the fire conducts along the electricity

Edit: this was like two weeks ago but it was the other way around I am dumb

Make use of the only good usefully informative scene in Small Soldiers, and use a power transformer to create a city block radius EMP

What possible use case is there for this that isn't a felony of some description?

Gonna assume controlled burns in difficult terrain.

Also the reason that flamethrowers aren't illegal in most states, since being able to project flame makes controlled burns a lot easier.

Deer hunting. Don't think, just buy one and do it. It's the American way.

get a nice char on them fuckers while they twitchin

Don't even bother shooting them, just use the flamethrower for everything. There may be collateral damage but it's worth it.

West bank.

I say that, but I, in no way, want that to happen.

But yeah, Boston Dynamic have long said that they don't want their robots weaponised, but here we are seeing it happen.

Boston Dynamics has made multiple robots for DARPA. If they make a really great platform, I expect they're probably gonna be weaponized at some point. Maybe not by them, but...

I remember a buddy of mine who was working on an autonomous, self-mapping rover research project at his university on a DARPA project. He was just working on the navigation side, part of a larger project. He was telling me how he had a "huh" moment when they got the first control unit and it had a big red button on it labelled "weapon".

Boston Dynamic didn't let this happen. Their EULA explicitly prevents people from doing this so they used this robot from Unitree instead

Employees trying to unionize.

At least it seems like that sort of thing never ends up being a felony...

Rapid heating of slabs of meat for some weird meat effect rich people pay for

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butane_torch

Culinary

Butane torches are frequently employed as kitchen gadgets to caramelize sugar in cooking, such as when making crème brûlée. They may be marketed as kitchen torches, cooking torches, or culinary torches. Use of the butane torch in the kitchen is not limited to caramelizing sugar; it can be used to melt or brown toppings on casseroles or soups, to melt cheese, and to roast or char vegetables such as peppers.

They are not actually that expensive. You just feel posh when you use one.

My girlfriend came with one, it's great for grilled cheese. But I'm not allowed to use it anymore because I set fire to a chocolate bar.

But I’m not allowed to use it anymore because I set fire to a chocolate bar.

Huh. TIL.

https://kitchenroar.com/flammable/chocolate/

Chocolate, or more so cocoa, is highly flammable. If it catches fire, the blaze is difficult to extinguish since cocoa powder contains 10 to 20 per cent fat and has a huge surface area. Yes, chocolate is flammable. Most solid foods possess at least some level of flammability because they are organic, and chocolate is no exception.

See, I don't see how one would have known that without having actually experimented and set a chocolate bar on fire, though.

Fuck up the rabbits that eat my flowers and leave a monolayer of rabbit shit on my property?

Have you considered a regular dog that doesn't shoot flames? Our non-flamethrowing dog does a very good job taking care of the rabbits she can't chase away.

Probably leaves a monolayer of dog shit, though. Now, a flamethrower robo-dog, there's the dog of the future.

I hate having to carry around a .5g firelight, this will save me the immense difficulty.

“Flame-throwing robot dogs don’t kill people, people kill people”

Dear ladies and gentleman of the jury. I will now argue that the LLM that programmed the fire breathing dog, did so in such a manner as to make it sentient. The dog was able to and did act of it's own accord when it killed the woman, Ms Smith. The defendant here did not create sentience in the dog, nor could he have known turning the dog on, outside, may result in the fire breathing dog torch a bystander to death.

You can see here, the dogs walking and urination patterns closely align with a real, organic dog. This definitively proves that the dog killed the woman, and now the defendant, who only released the dog into nature. Thank you very much.

That's a legit point under common law. The owner or keeper of a wild animal is generally strictly liable for damage caused by the animal, except if the animal is local fauna, in which case liability terminates on the animal's escape back into the wild. I don't know of any place with native flame throwing robots.

Theoretically if Amazon drones become wide spread in the environment and I capture one, attach a flamethrower to it, and the above scenario happens after I release it back into the wild, would that defense then apply as Amazon drones are native to the environment?

That would probably fall under intentional torts rather than strict animal liability. If you do, put up some vague "is this your drone?" flyers with a blurry photo, wait a bit, take the drone to the vet and pay the bill in your name, and build the evidence of your keepership, because you'll have to admit being a keeper for the defense to work. Also, owners or keepers are liable, and this is one of those rare times in law when or also means and, and Amazon will probably help you defend the case in chief, though they will probably come after you next. This does not constitute legal advice.

3 more...
3 more...
3 more...

"The Mechanical Hound slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live in its gently humming, gently vibrating, softly illuminated kennel back in a dark corner of the firehouse"

Here we go...

Why do people keep reading dystopias as instruction books?

Your guess is as good as mine. Let's just hope that they didn't also see any copies of The Limits to Growth as well. It was a scientific report published in 1972 by a think-tank. Using computer models developed at MIT, the authors warned that continuing on business-as-usual population and consumption growth trajectories would likely lead to societal collapse within the next 100 years.

I don't know about you but I'm excited!

I hate this but it's hilarious. It's a microcosm of everything that's making me depressed right now, and somehow that's precisely why it's amazing.

Lying on my bed, my new dog will keep me warm on cool winter nights.

According to the FAQ on the flamethrower, while the unit is apparently pretty flexible in fuel that it can handle, the recommended fuel is mostly diesel. I'd imagine that one could use biodiesel and do climate-friendly heating.

This is a great day! I think we can ALL agree that it's been deeply frustrating to be priced out of the flame throwing robot dog market for so long.

This is an absolute W for flamethrowing robot dog enthusiasts everywhere.

You were paying the market rate for your flamethrowing robot dog? Dude, buy refurbished.

I'm waiting for more competition to enter the market and for prices to be driven down further.

Owning is boring. You want to rent one through my new app. FRaaS. Flamethrower robot as a service. I am starting the first round of venturing funding at 1 billion. It also has block chain in it.

It also has block chain in it.

The key is to use 100x more electricity than is actually needed.

Imagine telling your insurance about your newest purchase.

They'll probably ask for a referral, it's legal in 48 states.

Ok so.... I'm guessing CA and NY are the two that have outlawed flamethrowers for non roofers and non combatants?

I know damn well the roofers in CA have flame throwers, they're small-ish, and can only shoot a 7'-8' flame, but they definitely have them.

Only 8'! What monsters are they fighting on those rooftops?

8" sounds more like a large torch than a flamethrower to me, IDK how they classify things tho.

Fire-extinguisher robot dogs in 3, 2, ...

Yeah, no. Saving people sounds like a waste of money. How can we monetize saving them? Their deaths are way more lucrative.

They already have Spot dogs that can do fire supression. But they need the mechanical arm that the newer revisions introduced.

That was the excuse dog to make this dog possible. Please pay attention when safety robots are announced.

Even less money for a real dog and flame-thrower....

Yeah, but controls are... unreliable.

Training tends to fall out the window when Lacy sees the flames spewing from her backpack.

Anyone able to loan me under $10,000? It's for something really cool.

Give me $5K and a case of beer and I'll make you a dog suit that breathes fire.

You always get a better bang for your buck investing in furries.

$7.5K if you want safety standards, though.

I just want one that delivers a beer and a hunk of summer sausage.

But a flamethrower? I guess...sure?

burns down house during summer sausage delivery

Sorry mortgage deposit, something else has come up

Whatever happened to all the people that bought the Boring Company flamethrower?

They'd be a good customer base for this, but strangely I never hear how they're getting on now

Considering it was a Musk product, it probably fell apart in their hands the first time they tried to pull the trigger. If it didn't explode in their faces.

Were you expecting weekly updates?

I was at least expecting them to be publicly humiliated

Can I just get a robot dog armed with a super soaker? That would be hilarious.

The whole article listing the various uses of flamethrowers, like environmental conservation, then mentioning concerns that flamethrowers can double as weapons is just... I don't even know what to do with that.

it even lists napalm as an intended use. gonna conserve the hell out of that commie rainforest, I guess?

The thing is we on paper didn’t use incindiaries in Vietnam as anti personnel weapons, it was to torch the rainforest and deoxygenate tunnels. Now in practice we all know that flamethrowers were used on homes and have seen the pictures of the children with Napalm burns. But yeah this line of argument is nothing new.

Now if i just had an extra 10k lying around collecting dust..

I'm holding out for a fully-autonomous flamethrower robotic monkey.

Completely useless for firefighting. Putting a drip torch on its ass and letting it walk a line, maybe. But it's not going to cut down the trees to make a firebreak, who what's the point.

A lot of wildfires aren't in areas with trees, brush fires are incredibly dangerous too. Source: I live in an area with brush fires.

Can I use it to light up my noisy neighbor house?

Yes. Legally? Probably not

No problem, I will left the robot to burn there too, no traces.. perfect plan.. I just need to spend 10k to get rid of that noisy MF..

I'd imagine that it'd depend upon the materials from which the house is constructed.

Fungal towers not gonna like it

!cataclysmdda@lemmy.world

IIRC, fire kills fungal beds effectively but doesn't actually take out the fungal tentacles.

I generally treat discretion as the better part of valor and get out of Dodge if fungus is present.

Exodii spotted, p.s deathmobile with lazer turrets and solar panels gonna do the job tho, just sprinkle some molotovs beforehand

This is the best summary I could come up with:


If you've been wondering when you'll be able to order the flame-throwing robot that Ohio-based Throwflame first announced last summer, that day has finally arrived.

It features a one-hour battery, a 30-foot flame-throwing range, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity for remote control through a smartphone.

It also includes a LIDAR sensor for mapping and obstacle avoidance, laser sighting, and first-person view (FPV) navigation through an onboard camera.

The company lists possible applications of the new robot as "wildfire control and prevention," "agricultural management," "ecological conservation," "snow and ice removal," and "entertainment and SFX."

Back in 2018, Elon Musk made the news for offering an official Boring Company flamethrower that reportedly sold 10,000 units in 48 hours.

Even so, to state the obvious, flamethrowers can easily burn both things and people, starting fires and wreaking havoc if not used safely.


The original article contains 286 words, the summary contains 139 words. Saved 51%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Agricultural management that is, torching ant hives and wasp nests, are the most common civilian purpose for flamethrowers. And given I'm allergic to some kinds of stings, I'd be glad for a robot dog to manage my wasps for me.

But I don't have a farm, nor $10K to spend on a dogbot.

Cool like in Mona Lisa Overdrive. All I need to do now is to get a few and move into an abandoned factory in South Jersey until the Yakuza hire me to look after an AI for them.

The question is, at that price can you really afford not to?

I have a piece of bologna, lighter, hairspray, duct tape, and a city full of strays.

Strapping a can of hairspray to a stray and lighting it: Priceless